Despite being a permanent member of the United Nations since 1945, Russia has been in the limelight since the beginning of the Cold War for its complex relations with the rest of the world, espcially the US. Recently, the illegal annexation of Crimea, and the chemical attack on civilians in the Syrian city of Douma have thoroughly contributed to rising tensions between Russia and the West. One man stands behind this aggressive foreign policy: Vladimir Putin.

Initially elected in 2000, Putin has been a dominant political figure in Russia. The ex Lieutenant Colonel of the KGB is known from the west for being ruthless. By contrast, in Russia, he is considered as a semi-god and is adored by his population, having saved the country from an economic and social collapse in the early years of his 18-year rule.

During the last decade, the largest and 9th most populous country on earth seeked to re-established itself as a superpower. Putin’s effective use of Russia’s natural resources did help in achieving this. Indeed, there are several pipeline routes running east to west and throughout Europe, some for oil and some for gas. In 2005-06, tensions arose concerning this matter between Kiev and Moscow, which cut energy supply to eighteen countries. Likewise, some countries which are highly dependent on Russian energy were remarkably restrained in criticizing the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Germany being the largest buyer of Russian natural gas, this made Moscow even more powerful as it could turn off the taps at any time, leaving millions of houses without heating. As a matter of fact, Germany’s position in affairs involving Russia is sensitive and poses risks for Europe, as highlighted by the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk.

The Kremlin’s decision of supporting Bachar Al-Assad in the full-scale civil war, which has been the deadliest of the century, was seen rather as a provocation from Putin, who showed to the world that he could stand against the West. Indeed, Russia’s entrance in the conflict in 2015 did not help in its relations with the US, which on the other hand provided military armaments to the anti-Assad rebel groups who also fought against the ISIS. In addition, Putin entered the war to assert Russia’s power amidst the superpowers. Earlier this year, two separate incidents of bombs dropped by the Syrian Air Force were believed to have contained nerve agents, killing 43 people. Neither the US and its allies, nor Russia and the Syrian government accepted the blame. This resulted in the UN Security Council failing to adopt a resolution, as Russia and the US were clashing over this issue and exchanged military threats. Meanwhile, Russia is still sticking to its aggressive and ruthless foreign policy.

The Trump-Putin summit further reinforced Russia’s position amongst the superpowers. It was expected that the two leaders would discuss arms control, US sanctions following the annexation of Crimea, as well as Ukraine and Syria. However, turns out the summit was a complete fiasco for the US. Trump avoided bringing up any uncomfortable topic but rather sided with Putin against his own director of national intelligence, Daniel Coats, by declaring that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 US elections. This showed to the world how weak Trump is compared to Putin, or how powerful Putin is compared to Trump.