In our sanitised, public relations-conscious age, Vladimir Putin’s chauvinistic bluster has been bizarrely compelling. For a while, that unaccustomed spectacle concealed the profound brittleness of his regime, at least from some. Now the cracks are showing. The immediate causes are western sanctions and the lower price of oil but Russia’s fragility runs much deeper.

Mr Putin came to power on the strength of a promise: that it was possible to rule like Joseph Stalin but live like Roman Abramovich. The arrangement suited almost everyone. Mr Putin and his KGB cronies were able to rebuild a softer version of the authoritarianism they had yearned for since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russia’s economic elites — Mr Putin’s coterie from the “power ministries” in Moscow and the oligarchs of the Boris Yeltsin era who were smart enough to play along — enjoyed vast wealth. Thanks to rising commodity prices, Russia’s urban middle class became richer, too.