Russian roulette is a dangerous game in which a person shoots at their own head with a gun that contains a bullet in only one of its chambers, so that the person does not know if the gun will fire or not. Vladimir Putin was famously accused of playing Russian roulette by Riki Ellison, President of the Missile Defence Advocacy Alliance (MDAA), when Russia tested RS-24 long-range missile in 2007. Ellison had termed that Russian military initiative an effort aimed at intimidating and threatening former Eastern Bloc countries.
Putin's belligerence perhaps found its best expression in the Second Chechen War and later in the Russo-Georgian War. The way he behaved towards Chechen militancy and Georgian provocation was utterly ruthless. He's known for his determination to get what he wants and not caring if he has retaliated against Russia's adversaries disproportionately.
Through his 2012 victory, Putin has convincingly proved to his people in particular that he can restore Russian glory. It is, therefore, instructive to note how a Sovietologist looked at Putin's 2000 Victory. Writing for TIME, Tony Karon in an article titled "Putin's Russia Offers Little Comfort for the West" said: "Putin has sold himself to Russians as the tough-guy who'll sort out the mess bequeathed by Boris Yeltsin, affirming his credentials as sheriff in the brutal war to recapture Chechnya - and, along with it, Russia's national pride. After all, many Russians haven't forgotten that while the West was championing Yeltsin, his government was condemning them to poverty."
That 'tough-guy' suddenly postponed his visit to Pakistan. The explanation offered by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a press briefing in Islamabad yesterday was arguably not very convincing because of a variety of reasons. It may be recalled that during his second tenure as an elected President of Russia, Putin elevated Russia's ties with Pakistan to the extent of sending Russian prime minister Mikhail Fradkov. Since his election for the third term had clearly and unambiguously coincided with the US troop drawdown from Afghanistan, a serious deterioration in Pakistan-US relationship and dangerous escalating stand-off between the US and Iran were some key developments that perhaps required him to raise the status of bilateral relations a notch or two with the only nuclear power of the Islamic world.
It may also be mentioned here that Putin made a visit to India in 2002, but preferred to avoid Pakistan, although he offered his services to the West to resolve the India-Pakistan standoff following a militant attack on the Indian parliament that had brought the two nuclear-armed neighbours to the brink of war.i
That Russia cannot enhance bilateral ties at the cost of its historic trade relations with India is a fact. The Musharraf-Aziz government's experience in relation to Pakistan's keenness to purchase Russian choppers is a strong case in point. Moscow made it clear to Islamabad that although it wanted a significant improvement in political and commercial ties in post-2001 global order, it would not become part of any military purchase deal that militated against India's interests. Pakistan was also told that Russia would not even countenance any deal that carried real or perceived threats to a country which is the second largest market for the Russian defense industry.

i Putin's Progress by Peter Truscott
(The writer is newspaper's News Editor)