This is simply an incredible exchange. Beyond the memeable moments, it's rare for Putin to field such blunt questions from foreign reporters. You can actually sense his anger at the first question, and he answers directly—It tells us a lot about Russian foreign policy.

(1/7) https://twitter.com/bbcstever/status/1339614564896391175

Putin is explicit here about what so many great journalists have chronicled in books about the man:

A deep-seated sense of betrayal ultimately stemming, rightly or not, from America's unipolar moment.

It didn't have to be this way. For a while there folks wondered (in varying seriousness) if might even join NATO. Putin and Tony Blair were good friends; Комбинация was singing about "American Boy" and Medvedev was jammin' out.

What went wrong? There are a million ways to point the finger.

Russians will tell you it was U.S. action in Kosovo, Iraq, and missile defense deployments.

Americans will tell you about Russian aggression in Chechnya and Georgia, laying the path to Crimea and Syria.

Wherever you lay the blame, it's clear Russians at least felt like they had earned a place as co-leads of a new world order. Putin's anger in this interview betrays the hurt and perhaps sense of retribution that has been motivating Russian foreign policy for the past six years.

In many ways the ship has sailed, and Russo-Sino cooperation is intensifying as both seek to undermine the word order that has come to constrain them (although some of this is overhyped).

And I don't think there is any amount of appeasement that would reverse either's ambition.

But if you want to learn how we got here, to be present at the destruction, I recommend starting with "All the Kremlin's Men" by @zygaro, "The Man Without a Face" by @mashagessen, and "America Between the Wars" by @derekchollet & @JimGoldgeier.

End.