Not that it paints the big picture I'm after, but still:

counterpunch.com/whitney12052007.html

I must notice Mike Whitney at the C-punch has taken the measure of the Putin triumph at least. Looked at narrowly on its own terms, i.e. the great game board that is the Eurasian massif centrale, it boils down to this from Vlad to Uncle Poach: Fuck you, Uncle, you Tartuffian slimefuck, you and your encircling snake, the human-rights liberty-league somewhere-over-the-rainbow gimmick! Wanna know why the Russian people support me, and not your weeping rodeo clown legion? It's simple! My govenment has taken Mother Russia off the western booze binge your flunkies put her on in the 90's.

Ma Russia is back, baby, back on her feet and ready to rumble. But here's the clincher, Samuel: your dreams of running pipe up the ass of the Caspian oil basin and sucking all that black gold away right from under Ma's nose — well, as of today, take notice: that dream's for shit, dickhead!