appears that putin has won in that challenge but he does appear weaker now, doesn t he, bus he did look vulnerable yesterday which a lot of people didn t expect. should we be concerned that he s going to try to get that strongman image back by escalating the war in ukraine, for example? max, i think that that strongman image which the creme inl incidentally has built up very carefully, the image of the man on horseback, the shirtless putin we re used to seeing, that image has been, you know, retrieve blee damaged. so the surprising thing about this is not just that it s the biggest challenge to putin s rule in over two decades, but the idea that putin cannot be challenged has been dispelled. it s important to remember that russia has cracked down massively on internal dissent, essentially outlawed criticism of the military and here you have someone who has not only