Why is Putin still so desperate for western validation?

Everyone loves Russia, or at least echoes its talking points – if you believe the country’s state media. Why should it be so important for Vladimir Putin, who tries to appear impervious to foreign criticism, to magnify any seemingly supporting words?

There was a distinct absence of western guests at last week’s St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), once Russia’s shop window for investment and trade deals and nicknamed the ‘Russian Davos’. There was the Hungarian foreign minister (who presented attending as an act of maverick courage), but otherwise the main dignitaries there came from the Global South – or World Majority, as Moscow has taken to calling it – and even the Taliban. 

So perhaps as compensation, the official media is suddenly full of past and present bigwigs apparently confirming Vladimir Putin’s lines. Karin Kneissl, the former Austrian foreign minister, told the TASS news agency that she remembered ‘that long before 2022, people were making statements saying that it would be more reasonable if there was some kind of balkanisation of Russia, you know, like a collapse, disintegration.’