This highly unusual move almost surely seals the fate of two men who have come todespise each other to spend a lot more time and money facing off in court.
The prospect that Mr Putin could oversee a more thorough-going union between Russia and Belarus, on Poland's eastern border, sends a few Polish pulses racing, though a lot of Poles also think it would be good if Russia's new president were to cut Belarus's eccentric leader, Alexander Lukashenka, whom most Poles despise, down to size.