As Putin’s tanks roll into Ukraine, he knows exactly who to feel sorry for: himself | Marina Hyde

We live in an age of sentimental hardmen - just listen to the Russian leader's aggressively maudlin demands for respect'

It says a lot about the Ukrainian people's awful options that the big question is whether Vladimir Putin is crazy or just pretending to be crazy. For some, last night's entirely improvised, heavily staged speech to his security council was an indication that the Russian president has finally gone mad - a remote diagnosis that suggests we might look back on such things as the annexing of Crimea and the deployment of nerve agent in historic Wiltshire as his good years".

I should say right off the bat that I have no idea whether Putin has or hasn't gone mad - however unfashionable not knowing things may be these days. As Russian tanks roll into Ukraine and the western powers debate whether it technically is or isn't an invasion, you have to say this phoney war really does boast an unbelievable headcount of phoneys.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist