How India's Modi chose Moscow's S-400 missiles, defied Trump and spurned Israel | Opinion

Vladimir Putin knows how to pack a punch. The combatant Russian president, an avid judoka, applies the martial art's two principles to diplomacy. One: move rapidly. Two: use the weight and strength of the opponent to your advantage rather than combating them directly.

In a deft move, Putin closed a $5.4 billion arms deal with India, selling the Russian S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile defense systems at the beginning of October.