David Remnick's recent appearance on New Yorker's Out Loud podcast offers great insight into what drives Vladimir Putin' to do the things he does, as ill-advised as they might seem to the outside world.
This Out Loud segment is a companion to Remnick's related New Yorker article focusing on Putin and the Sochi Olympics but stands well on its own in light of the recent unrest in the Ukraine and gives us a preview of the philosophical and political stances we can expect from Putin in the future.