“They sentenced me to 20 years of boredom, of trying to change the system from within. I’m coming now, I’m coming to reward them. First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin.” So sang the late great American lyric poet Leonard Cohen in 1988. Vladimir Putin must be among Cohen’s fans, notwithstanding that he was both a Buddhist and a Jew. Putin took Manhattan on Nov. 8 … [Read more...]