Strongman's power trap

MOSCOW ― Earlier this year, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he was forming a 400,000-man national guard that would report only to him, many Russians wondered why a new military force was needed. After all, Russia’s army was supposedly back: Putin had equipped it with new toys, and even arranged for two small wars ― in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine, starting in 2014 ― to prove it.