In tomorrow’s Financial Times, Philip Stephens has an intelligent article examining President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to rebuild Russia’s influence in its near abroad: Russia cannot reclaim the Soviet empire. It can, in Mr Putin’s mind, re-establish informal hegemony. Thus a friendlier government in Tbilisi would greatly strengthen Moscow’s recovering grip on the Caucasus and central Asia. It would also protect its monopoly of gas supply to Europe. A proposed gas pipeline under the Baltic should likewise help tame Poland and the Baltic states.