Who could fail to appreciate the delicious ironies offered up by Vladimir Putin’s trip to the Lada plant in Tolyatti yesterday?  The Prime Minister’s taste in cars has always been ostentatiously jingoistic.  Last summer saw him smashing Russia’s reputation for dodgy gear boxes and creaking ignition with a highly-publicized four-day drive across Siberia in a Lada Kalina. Yesterday’s trip to the Avtovaz plant in Tolyatti was doubtless intended to reap similarly photogenic results.