Russia's Vladimir Putin plays to strengths on foreign policy Even the magicians of Russian state television could not make Vladimir Putin look good during the G20 summit he hosted in St Petersburg last week. With bags under his eyes, a hollow voice and a handkerchief never far from his nose, Mr Putin was even asked at his final press conference on Friday about his health. "Air conditioning," he said, speaking of his recent plane trip to Russia's far east. With President Barack Obama betting his political future on a US military response to Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons, Mr Putin was indulging in Russia's national paranoia about the dreaded skvozniak, or cold drafts. Mr Putin's demeanour did not suggest a momentous diplomatic initiative that would halt Mr Obama's politically perilous march to war was in the making. Mr Putin and Mr Obama nearly did not meet, then spent all of 20 minutes huddled in a corner and came out speaking at cross purposes. But behind the scenes a plan was being hatched. The Kremlin and Mr Obama, they later revealed, had discussed a proposal to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control. On Monday, Russia sprung into action. Sergei Lavrov, its wily foreign minister, seized on an apparently off-the-cuff remark by John Kerry, US secretary of state, and instantly reinvigorated attempts at a diplomatic solution over Syria's chemical weapons. At a stroke, the Russian president was transformed from humbled and perpetually grouchy diplomatic spoiler - framed by critics as a defender of Syrian tyrants - into peacemaker and grandmaster in the game of realpolitik. He capped off a few days of diplomatic success, with a timely and powerful commentary in the New York Times challenging Mr Obama's case for intervention. We are not protecting the Syrian government, but international law," Mr Putin wrote. His hard-nosed diplomacy and ability to turn animosity into a diplomatic opening have won admiration from unlikely corners, even in the US. "Frankly, in the last week, Vladimir Putin has looked like a statesman," said US commentator Pat Buchanan on Fox News, while Ian Bremmer, chairman of the Eurasia Group, tweeted that Mr Putin "has had his best day in years." His initiative also demonstrated the subtle, pragmatic side of Russian foreign policy camouflaged by the diplomacy of veiled threats, overtures to rogue states and nuclear sabre-rattling. In offering the US an opening, the Kremlin passed up an opportunity to watch Mr Obama be humiliated by a probable failure to secure congressional support for action. "He is not seeking to humiliate Obama; he does not want to undermine the US, but he wants the Unites States to be brought within the international system," said Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, the think-tank, in reference to Mr Putin's article in the New York Times. He is not seeking to change the international status quo; he sees the status quo as being dangerously lopsided and undermined by the US. The Kremlin's interest in foreign policy efforts are not just driven by abstract principles but by domestic political considerations. Foreign policy "is the only area he consistently polls well," said Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin political consultant. Foreign policy remains the one issue which Mr Putin's political opponents have not sought to criticise. "He doesn't look vulnerable there," said Mr Pavlovsky. While Mr Putin's rhetoric often seems anti-western to the point of paranoia - he often blames the US for funding opposition rallies in Russia and directly accused Mr Kerry of lying to the US Congress last week - his policies have for the most part been solid and pragmatic. Russia has often supported or at least not stood in the way of important US goals, for all its diplomatic bluster. Russia, for example, has always voted alongside the US on sanctions directed at Iran over its nuclear programme. It has held up or cancelled delivery of advanced S-300 anti aircraft missiles to Syria and Iran at the behest of Israel and the US. The confrontational theatrics are mainly for internal consumption, argues Georgy Mirsky. Putin cannot be seen to back down in the face of western pressure. If he loses he can say he tried, but they were too powerful. The only thing he cannot do is be seen to surrender. "Abroad they are playing a bad hand very well but at home, where they hold all the cards, they are losing," Mr Mirsky said. Despite holding all the levers of power and benefiting from consistently high oil prices, the Kremlin has steadily lost ground to its political opponents. On Monday, the same day Russia engineered its international coup, the Kremlin took a hit when its incumbent candidate for Moscow mayor came close to a humiliating second round run-off against opposition challenger Alexei Navalny, who took more than a quarter of the vote. Mr Navalny has said he would seek to challenge Mr Putin in the 2018 presidential election, denouncing the Kremlin in a popular slogan as a collection of "crooks and thieves." The one thing that Mr Navalny has never criticised however is Putin's foreign policy. Russian moves