Here's a complete transcript (English + Russian)
Naked Capitalism's reaction.
Ian Welsh's reaction.
Gilbert Doctorow's reaction.
Larry Johnson's reaction...cites US press reactions.
I confess I'm partial to the transcript rather than the video. Ian Welsh is my favorite link for reactions.
Pretty much the universal consensus among those reactions: Putin is at the top of his game, and obviously more intelligent and coherent than any Western leader, although Doctorow criticizes him for starting with a history lesson. (One might expect a country whose form of polite address names ancestors--e.g. Vladimir Vladimirov--would value historical explanations.)
I'll add that electing weak, even senile leaders serves the portion of the population that wants a weak state. These people are the wealthy elite who often got that way through fraud or deceit, or inherited from those who did ("Behind every great fortune lies a great crime" - Honore de Balzac). They have found strong states serve too many people, and threaten the fortunes this elite can extort from the population with impunity.
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