Russia's Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika promises to tell how Britain's Home Secretary Theresa May granted political asylum to Boris Berezovsky on the false denunciation of a disgraced oligarch to Russia. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova laughingly calls the "escaped cat" of the former colonel of the GRU, Sergei Skripal, who was poisoned by the "Novice". The niece of Colonel Victoria says that her sister Julia desperately wants to return to Russia, to the dog and her beloved person. The propaganda campaign against London is in full swing, and at that moment a chlorine bomb explodes in the Syrian city of the Duma, "Vitaly Portnikov writes in a column on" Radio Liberty ".

That is, from the Kremlin's point of view there is no bomb, as it were, but a special meeting of the Security Council has already been convened, and the representative of Russia will again have to listen to accusations and brand the ungrateful West. And the Russian leadership will have to wait, will Donald Trump. Because Russia has no way to respond to this blow. As there is nothing (despite the loudness of the propaganda campaign against Great Britain) Teresa May responds, if measures are taken against "Londonrade" and its rogue inhabitants.

The strength of Russia is not in impotence, but in the inaction of the West. The most important mistake of Vladimir Putin - the perception of inertia as a weakness. When the West, after the annexation of the Crimea, confined itself to pinpoint sanctions and telephone calls, when, after fanning the war in Donbass, Putin was tried to be exhorted rather than punished, this could only be perceived as a weakness. As an inability to stand up for "their own", which the Kremlin puts in place.

But the fact of the matter is that the West, which "won" Ukraine from Russia, exists only in the fantasies of Putin and many of his fellow citizens. And in the Western mind Ukraine existed in a world centered on Moscow. For the West, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict was originally a conflict between this distant and alien world. This Putin fought for Ukraine with the US. And from the American point of view Putin, as it were, was at war with himself, and it was difficult to understand why he was doing this. But the Russian president believed that the West is powerless, and rushed to Syria.

In Syria, too, it was possible to imagine a war with the Americans. But the White House was interested in stabilizing the situation in the region blown up by the "Arab spring", and did not believe that the Assad regime of this stabilization would contribute. And from the Kremlin, the Syrian events were seen as the conquest of the country by the Americans, which at all costs must be stopped. What we see in Syria is not a war of two parties wishing to establish their own control, but a battle of supporters of maintaining the dictatorship with the adherents of stabilization and compromise. Of course, Moscow or Tehran is easier than Washington, because the regime can rule a set of cemeteries and assume that its legitimacy is ensured. And stabilization does not imply cemetery silence, it implies the consent of the living. But from the Kremlin's point of view, the West's actions in Syria have shown that the free world is ruled by solid weaklings. And Putin moved on. In Salisbury.

And here came the moment when the West began to respond really. Without much desire, without enthusiasm, every time stopping and agreeing, but - to answer. It is worth asking yourself a very simple question: what will the Kremlin say about the actual actions rather than declarations and calls? After all, there was no real answer to Trump's blow to Syria and even to the destruction of the Russian aircraft by Turkey. There is nothing to answer to the demolition of "Londonrade", and if the Americans decide to bomb Assad again - there will be no answer. This is the main problem of the Kremlin. "Mirror" of confrontation with the West exists, again, only in the Kremlin's imagination. Because in the real world (not that on television, but that in fact), the United States and Britain are at the center of the global world, and Russia on its periphery.

It is possible to introduce anti-sanctions in response to sanctions, only Western products are needed primarily for Russian citizens. You can close the US consulate in St. Petersburg in response to the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle, only both of these consulates are needed primarily for citizens of Russia. It is possible to impose retaliatory sanctions against Western politicians and businessmen, but these Russian oligarchs and companies keep money in the West, and not American ones in Moscow or Saratov. Banks - there. Exchange - there. Mansions - there. Bowers - there. Children are there.

Russia is just a territory for plundering or earning what is spent in the real world and it will never replace its elite West, because the outskirts by definition can not replace the center.

That is why the Kremlin could play an equal rivalry with a silent, indifferent and inert West, stubbornly unwilling to notice that they were at war with him. Ready to respond, irritated and bristling the West, the Kremlin can only lose.

Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Join also the TSN group. Blogs on facebook and follow the updates of the section!.