That's more or less what Illarionov was saying before it happened.

I have to wonder if the fiasco was prompted by an echo chamber effect. Putin did act out a little bit of theater for domestic consumption with the cabinet meeting chatter and his intervention during the talks (in Russian). From what I understand, state TV channels basically put on their tribal feathers and did a little no-gas-for-y'all dance. So far I've seen absolutely no sense of negative international repercussions even in liberal Russian press, which normally enjoys pointing these things out. It's not like Putin has shown a good ear for foreign PR before.

Michael