Premium: FT’s in-depth profile of the man who unleashed murder and mayhem in Europe

Despite obvious realities, some of my countrymen, reportedly SA's president among them, believe Western democracies are the aggressors in the Ukrainian war. That the now stalling invasion ordered by an isolated Russian president-for-life – the personification of absolute power corrupting absolutely – is somehow justified because he doesn't want a NATO-aligned country on his border.

Some years back there was a propagated belief that unlamented former SA president Jacob Zuma is a chess player. His pal Vladimir Putin, who like Zuma worked his way to power through the Secret Service, is apparently also a devotee of the ancient cerebral game. If true, they're living examples that loving something and actually being good at it can be worlds apart.

Even an average chess player plans three moves ahead. A good one, like Putin's storied opponent Garry Kasparov, more than a dozen. Putin's invasion, by contrast, was like a pre-teen chess novice attacking with his Queen in the overconfident belief of a blitzkrieg victory. Putin's plan was a single move – a replica of something that worked in Europe 83 years ago but is archaic in an era of javelin anti-tank and stinger anti-aircraft missiles. Having failed, he's threatening to reach for the nuclear trigger, like a petulant child throwing over the chess board.

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