Russian diplomacy has its fair share of utter incompetence. Who does not recall fondly the wild panic in Moscow in October 2000 when it became clear that Milosevic was falling? Plus there must be senior Russians fretting over the costly shambles in Ukraine. But Russian diplomats have huge advantages. They spend no time whatsoever bickering in EU Working Groups, and so have plenty of scope to analyse and think. They evince a steely cynicism, and impressive objectivity in assessing the balance of forces in any given situation. Above all, they have only one goal in mind: projecting and (where possible) expanding explicit Russian power.