Putin's heyday

Whether you call it good luck or a great strategy, it's clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin is enjoying his heyday in international politics these days: Thanks to the peculiarities of Western democracies and their political systems, Putin has managed to grow his influence quickly in a number of countries including the United States, reasserting Moscow's power on its periphery and sowing discord among his adversaries. 

United States: President-elect Donald Trump was the only candidate who questioned the U.S. commitment to NATO and praised Putin by suggesting "a deal" with Russia. He said the U.S. and Russia could work together to "knock the hell out of ISIL," using the acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, while hinting that the U.S. could stop supporting the Syrian rebel groups who are fighting against Bashar al-Assad. Trump, a businessman and the writer of "The Art of the Deal," may be the symptom of a paradigm change for the U.S., in which a principle- and value-based foreign policy is replaced by a more pragmatic one in which everything's a bargain for self-interest.

Britain and European Union: So few developments in the West have been as important to advance Russian interests as Brexit. As Foreign Policy observed, "Russia's support for anti-immigrant parties may have contributed to Brexit passing by a narrow margin." A divided Europe means not only a weaker front against Russia, when necessary, it also means that a Europe with no Anglophone voice is less likely to be aligned with the U.S. When you divide, you can rule and when you divide twice, you can rule twice as powerfully. Its implications can already be observed: Did you see how Britain and France snubbed the EU's emergency meeting to discuss Trump's victory?
...