Quite possibly some of them are tongue in cheek, the "sexiest Man in the world" bit for sure. But certainly not statements like
"Putin is an astonishingly potent presence, with a way of dominating any room simply by sitting there, allowing his silence to fill the space"
Also read this and tell me how he finds an odd balance with Russia...seeing it in as a sort of a moral gray when he considers UAE as clear black and white (emphasis mine)
"And so on to Russia and a World Cup that ran like an aggressively oiled machine, and where president and president seemed unusually close. This is a nation that defies normal categories, which is not a democracy, is not transparent, is not exactly a tyrannical regime either. But which is corrupt, cynical, alluring, gangsterish and deeply divisive. One thing quickly became clear from any Russia-based interaction on social media: you can’t trust anyone’s view on Russia. It demands a fixed position. If you say perhaps Russia should encourage a system of greater political opposition you will be accused of mainstream-media Russophobia in the pay of the great delusional global conspiracy. If you say Moscow is a nice modern city or that Russians are perhaps a little more open to the tangles and flaws in their system, you will be accused being a Putin-bot homophobe in the pay of the great delusional global conspiracy."
"And Russians like Putin. He gives them circuses. They are aware of this. The trappings of Western life are mocked as they’re mimicked. The snapline for the shiny, fun, relentless TV network TNT is ‘Feel Our Love’. TNT is sponsored by the state energy company Gazprom, the single largest carbon-guzzling energy company in the world. Gazprom has an aggressive stranglehold over European gas supplies. It’s a tool of soft power for the Kremlin."
