Vladimir Putin's strongman tactics make Barack Obama look weak

You can call him Vlad the bad, you can ridicule his penchant for bare-chested bravado and criticise his lack of tolerance towards any opposition. But Russian President Vladimir Putin is proving to be the top dog on the world stage as he moves in to snare Crimea.

While the main reason he cites is the protection of Russians who live in Crimea, it is not too hard to figure out Putin's main concern is losing absolute control of Russia's key naval base there. Though its lease is valid until 2042, it is not very helpful if the country is under a government that is more friendly to the West than Moscow.

Ever since the collapse of the Soviet empire, the United States has shaped world events. What Washington wanted, it got. But Putin has been slowly chipping away at this.

First he thumbed his nose at Washington by refusing to hand over former defence contractor Edward Snowden. Then he outmanoeuvred President Barack Obama as the Syrian crisis reached a critical point and let President Bashar al-Assad off the hook by forging a deal on Syrian chemical weapons.