Does Putin’s Judo philosophy explain his sanctions response?

Contemplating leaders and their heroes can be a revealing business. Churchill had busts of Nelson and Napoleon at Chartwell (and a portrait of John Churchill by his bedside). Ronald Reagan had a bronze head of an anonymous cowboy in the Oval Office; Boris Johnson has a bust of Pericles (who took advice only from his mistress Aspasia) on his desk at No. 10. Napoleon had a bust of Hannibal. But what of Vladimir Putin? According to the man himself he owns several portraits and a ‘very beautiful’ bust of a certain Kano Jigoro.

If you are neither Japanese nor a fan of martial arts that name may mean little. Kano Jigoro was the founder of Judo. But he didn’t just create a sport, he fashioned, according to Judo’s adherents, a philosophy of life. Putin, a black belt, has been obsessed with judo all his life (he began practicing at age 12) and some believe it may have informed not just his character but his political and even his military strategy.