Vladimir of Taurus

To speak of Russia's international isolation is an exaggeration, but Putin is in any case not concerned about the effect of his actions on Russia's standing in many countries: he has made plain his disdain for the EU and for Europe in general, famously describing the EU as a 'hamster'.

The US handling of Putin has sometimes been clumsy.

But recent US behaviour does not explain Putin's attitudes. Rather, they are a reflection of his psyche, his experience overall and the ethos of the KGB, the organisation to which he devoted his career.

Australians, living in a bubble called the Anglosphere, are unaware of the toxicity of the treatment of the US in the Russian media, especially television, which is state-controlled and the main source of news and commentary for almost all Russians. A liberal Russian commentator recently noted the practice in some provincial cities of staging 'bash Obama days', in which citizens are encouraged to belabour cardboard cutouts of the US president. Racist jokes about Obama circulate in Russia. Most Russians would reject the charge of prejudice and point bitterly to what they see as stereotypes of Russians in the Anglophone media. It's true that much media commentary on Russia is poorly informed and superficial, but those media do not enact government directives (ask Tony Abbott or Kevin Rudd).

But if sharp diplomatic tensions do not concern Putin, sanctions imposed by the US, EU and others, including Canada and Australia, do. The Russian line is that sanctions have made matters worse by allowing Putin to sheet the blame for Russia's economic woes to its critics and by hurting only smaller Russian firms (because the Kremlin will always bail out the big ones, most of which it owns). That may be so — Russians commonly interpret the sanctions as further proof of an irrational hatred for them as a people. But some respected Russian economists have observed the sanctions are hurting and say Putin is determined to have them lifted as soon as possible.

Most importantly, the sanctions have stopped the flow of the advanced technology Russia needs to modernise its energy sector, which brings in 65% of export revenue and over half of all state income (the impact has been much magnified by the collapse in the price of oil and its effect on the gas price). The sanctions have also further lowered domestic and foreign confidence in the future of the economy, thereby deepening Russia's reliance on China as a source of capital, which worries some Russians. And China cannot supply the technologies Russia needs to tap its huge Arctic deposits of oil and gas.

This article originally appeared at the Lowy Institute Interpreter.