Unrequited love is a sad thing for anyone to behold. The asymmetry seems out of joint, unnatural, wrong, not just to fans of romcom but also to geopolitical wonks. Which is why when Vladimir Putin was asked by a Russian journalist – tellingly on Valentine’s Day – to choose between Joe Biden and Donald Trump as the Russian star-tsar‘s choice as Potus after elections, without missing a (heart) beat, Putin’s reply was heartbreaking to many (read: Don fans). Dear Joe was dear Vlad’s choice as he found the older gent ‘more experienced, predictable, an old-school politician’. This, after Trump had, earlier this week in a campaign rally, said that he would encourage Russia (read: Putin) to invade countries that did not meet their Nato obligations – essentially seeking the Russian out for another round of intercontinental bromance. This is what you do, Vlad? Tinder-flick rightwards for that other guy?
As in all rebuffs, the rebuffed find a rationale for being rebuffed. Trump fanboys and fangirls will see Putin perhaps playing hard to get. And some among them, of the more emo variety, will see Vlad making such comments in public because he sees Biden as ‘easy’ – by which we also mean easier to deal with than their alpha-ntastic hero, Trump. By making his ‘choice’, though, Putin has made the two Americans’ catfight scrappier. This time over him.
