Putin and Peter the Great: Russian leader likens himself to 18th Century tsar

Vladimir Putin's admiration for Peter the Great is well known but he now seems to have ideas of 'Great'-ness himself.

He has openly compared himself to the Russian tsar, equating Russia's invasion of Ukraine today with Peter's expansionist wars some three centuries ago, and making his strongest acknowledgment yet that his own war is a land grab.

Mr Putin's apparent empire-building ambitions bode ill for Ukraine and have irked other neighbours, including Estonia, which called his comments "completely unacceptable." read more