Monkey see, monkey do

So the Bushbaby has been bullying the entire world around for 8 years whilst crashing the US economy.  And while Putin is now mainly the puppeteer behind Medvedev, he has observed and learnt:  the world is regressing into fascism, there is no responsible adult at the helm of the sinking ship that is the US and people are now so frightened that they'll accept any infringement on democracy and basic freedoms.

Welcome to the cold war rematch.