Vladimir Putin’s rumoured North Korea visit could happen soon

By visiting North Korea, Mr Putin can simply demonstrate to his detractors that he can – and will – do what he wants.

Find a workaround to the Western sanctions slapped on his country? For now, yes, he can.

Convince others to violate sanctions and sell Russia weapons? Apparently so.

Forge new relations with countries around the world despite waging his so-called “special military operation”? He’s definitely trying.

Ever since President Putin ordered troops into neighbouring Ukraine, he has pushed the idea that the West’s dominance is on the way out – and has courted those who agree with him or are at least open to that philosophy.

At a recent economic forum in St. Petersburg, it’s no accident one of Mr Putin’s key guests was the president of Zimbabwe – another country to have felt the keen sting of sanctions.

And Russia has been falling over itself to show that it has many friends around the world that sing from the same hymn sheet. From Asia, Latin America, Africa – anyone disenchanted with the ways of a US-led world is welcome.

Indeed, when Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa took to the stage, President Putin’s buzzwords rocketed out of his speech, with a new “multipolar world” as opposed to an arrogant West bent on shoring up its “global hegemony” at any cost.

Mr Putin has also courted closer ties with Iran, another country pummelled by sanctions that is eager to sell its military wares – in Tehran’s case, drones. And if it rattles the West, all the better.

When President Putin finally boards his plane to Pyongyang, he knows the images will captivate the world and leave no doubt that he is willing to do both business and politics with the partners of his choosing.

And while China will have its own reservations about Russia’s rapprochement with North Korea, any red lines will have been drawn when presidents Putin and Xi met during the Russian leader’s first overseas trip of his fifth term in office – itself dripping with symbolism about Russia’s declared shift to the East.

Few countries do strongman ceremony as pompously as Russia – but North Korea can certainly give them a run for their money. And with Russia’s shift away from traditional democracy, the gap between the two countries’ leaderships looks to be shrinking.

It doesn’t necessarily follow, of course, that ordinary Russians welcome their country’s growing closeness with North Korea, given their cultural and historical ties with Europe and the West. And this is one potential risk that Mr Putin will have to live with – as well as any new steps taken by Western powers in the aftermath of the two strongmen meeting.

In the end, we very likely won’t find out what’s been agreed – we didn’t when Kim Jong Un came to Russia last year.

But with watertight optics and messaging, the stage will be set for a defiant Putin to stride out – in the world’s most isolated country – and declare: “Yes, I can – watch me.”