[anigbrowl]

Quite so; the 'Great Game' of empires is most definitely back on. My take on this is that Putin is rather masterfully playing the Dutch Nativists and the Turkish autocrats against the social-liberal middle. Having the Turkish President denouncing the Dutch and Germans as nazis while also feeding the nationalist fantasies of Wilders and the various proto-fascist parties around Europe must be pretty entertaining for him; I bet he laughs himself to sleep every night.