In his speech on Monday justifying Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, President Putin gave voice to the hurt and bafflement Russians felt as the Soviet Union fell apart. “The USSR broke up so fast,” he said, “that hardly anyone understood the nature of those events.” The implication was that the break-up was caused by the old imperial powers, whose mischief persists today in Ukraine. “The policies that prevailed in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries,” as he put it, “are still continuing.” This time, though, the bold Mr Putin has called their bluff.