The author takes stock of Russian President Vladimir Putin's long tenure—and finds much of it lacking, especially on the domestic front. Putin's major successes include holding on to Crimea and creating instability in Ukraine, along with ensuring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's victory in the Syrian conflict—achievements that are all outside of Russia's borders. While these actions may have hurt Russia's relations with the West, the rest of the world—China, in particular—hardly regards Russia as a pariah. Domestically, however, the author observes that Putin has become “an increasingly absent feudal lord.” Putin's first and second term showed him to be "a competent micromanager," while the Putin of today seems to have lost that skill. Furthermore, Russia was unprepared for low oil prices, and its recent status as a top grain exporter is not nearly enough to make up the lost revenue. There is little to spur economic optimism. While Putin may have "cast Russia in the role of the world's biggest geopolitical disruptor," Russia needs sound domestic politics to sustain that role. "Putin has presided over, indeed enabled, a corrupt, inefficiently run country where people—including those in the top echelons of business and power—just fend for themselves as best they can.”

Read the full article on the Bloomberg website.