Vladimir Putin’s military displays are unstated threats behind a larger ambition

IT’S a mental image hard to dispel: Vladimir Putin in an armchair, smiling menacingly while around him, assorted thugs clean their fingernails with flick knives.

This is what Putin’s really up to

IT’S a mental image hard to dispel: Vladimir Putin in an armchair, smiling menacingly while around him, assorted thugs clean their fingernails with flick knives.

That image of President Putin as an old time gangster is the product of the Russian leader’s own geopolitical behaviour, which has all the subtlety of a horse’s head in a bed.

The little Russian fleet which left Vladivostok in late October has arrived just off Australian waters to herald the arrival of the man himself in Brisbane for the weekend’s G20 summit.

Artist: Paul Zanetti

Most leaders bring gifts for their hosts. Mr Putin brings a guided missile cruiser and three attendant ships. That show of unnecessary naval presence is what might be called an intended power display of swinging decks.

Much more serious is the movement of Russian tanks and other hardware and troops to the Ukrainian border, in what is seen as a possible precursor to a full military intrusion to reclaim the territory for Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens during a cabinet meeting at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Monday, Oct. 13, 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered thousands of his country's troops who were posted near the Ukrainian border to return to their permanent bases. A Kremlin spokesman said Putin had ordered approximately 17,600 troops to return home from the southern region of Rostov. The withdrawal may be a sign of goodwill ahead of Putin's trip to Milan on Thursday, where he is set to meet with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and European Union leaders.(AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Presidential Press Service)

Also disturbing have been the Russian air force flights to the fringe of European air space, a clear taunt to NATO and its members.

President Putin’s use of his military to spotlight his peculiar brand of global swagger would be amusing, were Russia not a nuclear power, and were Mr Putin not the man on that trigger.

It would be a relic of gunboat diplomacy if Vladimir Putin had the stability to ensure he wouldn’t order those gunboats to open fire.

Supplied image from the Prime Ministers Office of Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin during APEC Summit in Beijing

While the leaders of the world’s biggest powers, China and the US, are constructively comparing notes on global warming and strengthening the global economy, there is one significant leader more interested in showing how he can flex his military biceps.

Vladimir Putin wants to regain the huge land mass that was the Soviet Union before its breakup. He wants it as his personal empire. And it would seem he wants to be given it, like Al Capone accepting control of some gangland territory without having to send the boys in for it.

Mr Putin’s recent military displays in Europe, Ukraine and now off the waters of Australia are the unstated threats behind that ambition.