Domain Query: The Russian Bear

Longtime reader and friend of the blog Kapios posed an interesting set of questions to Monday's browser-crusher:

On another note, do you think the neo tsar has obtained the 'Daddy Putin' status to the Eastern European countries or is this just a front? Sure the countries around Russia are in NATO and they are littered with American military bases, U.N and so on, but Putin seems to have won the culture and religious war. The former communist countries are strengthening their economies, because most of them don't follow the Keynisian economics as closely as the U.S and the Christian Orthodox Church seems to be going strong as well. They have their problems too, with high ranking religious figures being corrupt, but they are not the spotlight of the world and they don't seem too eager to play politics like the Vatican. Maybe these countries are giving Putin a submissive nod given how Western countries corrupt everything they touch.

The West is a sinking ship, so I don't see a reason why they shouldn't side willfully and maybe happily with the Russians.

As is my practice these days, I decided to answer this via a Domain Query podcast.