Vladimir Putin begins Operation Blame Ukraine

VLADIMIR PUTIN is a man who likes victories; preferably stage-managed ones. A fixed election win followed by an exhilarating concert. A rousing Victory Day speech. Eight goals in an ice-hockey game.

The dictator copes less well with unscheduled setbacks, preferring to disappear from the stage. In 2000 he fumbled his response to the Kursk submarine tragedy. He was absent for over a day following the failed storming of the Beslan school in 2004, in which 186 child hostages were killed. Last year, when Yevgeny Prigozhin and his band of mercenaries made their way towards Moscow, Mr Putin was initially nowhere to be seen. So if he took a full 19 hours to conjure up a short TV performance to speak about the massive intelligence failure at Crocus City Hall in Moscow, he was falling into a familiar pattern.