Putin is the Hyacinth Bucket of great power leaders: it's all about keeping up appearances. Russia's a great power only to the extent that it can persuade others it is, because there's very little material basis for its pretensions to great power status. That's why Trump's deference is so important.

Since the collapse of the USSR, Russia's lacked almost all the attributes of a great power. It's an economic middle power; its not a technological or conventional military great power; diplomatically it lacks attractive or persuasive capacities. The organisations it leads are pretty useless.

2/ Russian federal subjects (regions) continue to facilitate the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia using established patronage ties.