Anyone who doubts how unstable
the rest of his speech suggested the opposite because he warned of a collapse in the Russian economy and called on citizens to make sacrifices so Russia could win the war.
The most horrifying passage,however,was not directed against Ukrainians (whom he calls Nazis even though he knows president Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish) or against the corrupt and morally bankrupt West. Mr Putin reserved his bitterest words for his enemies inside Russia.
“Any people,and especially the Russian people,will always be able to distinguish the true patriots from the scum and the traitors and simply spit them out like a midge that accidentally flew into their mouths.”
The threat is not unusual for Mr Putin who once said he would “exterminate[Chechens] in the shithouse” but it must have evoked in many Russians’ hearts the deep memories of the Great Terror which dictator Josef Stalin unleashed in the 1930s against an imaginary “fifth column” of traitors.
Already dissent is growing in Russia. Tens of thousands have been arrested for public protests,including television producer Marina Ovsyannikova,who photo-bombed the main Russian news channel earlier this week with her anti-war message.
But Mr Putin was saying that he was prepared to turn the brutal methods which he has employed against Ukraine,Syria and Chechnya on ordinary middle-class Russians if they cross him.
His defeats in Ukraine have only enraged him. Ukrainian sources claimed on Thursday that Russia bombed a theatre in the besieged city of Mariupol where hundreds of civilians,including children,were taking shelter.
Yet the world faces difficult questions in trying to deal with Mr Putin.
Raving in his Kremlin bunker like a modern day Dr Strangelove or Baba Yaga (the evil witch of Russian folk tales) it seems ridiculous to try to reason or negotiate with Mr Putin. US President Joe Biden this week even called him a “war criminal”.
But the West and Ukraine have no choice but to take him seriously. He has the nuclear button in his hands,a seat on the United Nations Security Council and he alone can call off the attack on Ukraine.
Some would argue that Mr Putin will only respond to military defeat and they have called for stronger NATO intervention including a “no-fly” zone over Ukraine. They say his madness is a bluff. Many would have liked the US to give the green light to shipping Soviet-era warplanes from Eastern Europe to Ukraine.
But Mr Biden is still trying to play by some rules and vetoed those moves because he does not want to give Mr Putin a pretext to escalate the conflict and start World War III.
Mr Putin is also one of the unknown variables in the pursuit of a negotiated settlement to the war.
It is impossible to know whether Mr Putin is serious about the peace talks started a week ago with Ukraine or whether the meetings are just a distraction while he prepares for a new military offensive. Some would argue that the talks could offer Mr Putin a face-saving off-ramp and end the war. But on the other hand it seems ridiculous to trust the dictator to stick to any agreement.
The West can no longer trust Mr Putin but it cannot ignore him either. It is an almost nightmarish scenario.
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