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As Mr Putin’s promise to boycott this summer’s London Olympics suggests, the Russian president seems determined to revive the mood of anti-Western antagonism that pervaded the Kremlin during his previous spell in office. His decision to form an alliance with the Chinese this week to block any attempt by the UN to halt the bloodshed in Syria was not motivated out of any residual affection for the Assad clan. It was a brazen attempt to frustrate the efforts of the Western powers, driven mainly by humanitarian considerations, to prevent Syria degenerating into all-out civil war. So far as Mr Putin is concerned, any policy the West wants to pursue will inevitably attract Moscow’s opposition.