Vladimir Putin gives out nine golden rings to allies, just like his hero Sauron

It’s been over 10 months since Russian dictator Vladimir Putin ordered his army to invade the sovereign nation of Ukraine. Putin (and much of the rest of the world) thought Russia would score an early and easy victory, but Ukrainians fought back, prolonging the conflict and revealing the Russian military to be far less formidable than assumed.

Putin, meanwhile, has become an international pariah, a real-world supervillain trying to crush a nation under his boot. It looks like like he’s embraced the role, because some of the things he’s done recently seem almost cartoonishly evil.

For instance, per Deadline, Putin recently attended a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a group of former Soviet republics that includes countries like Armenia, Belarus and Russia itself. There, he gave golden rings to the leaders of the eight member states, keeping one ring for himself.

Is Vladimir Putin trying to look like a supervillain or is it just happening?

It didn’t take long for people to draw comparisons between Putin and The Lord of the Rings villain Sauron, who gave out nine magic rings to leaders of men during the Second Age of Middle-earth, all of whom became “mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old,” but who eventually came under the thrall of the dark lord, who kept the One Ring for himself.

Reportedly, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was the only one to wear his ring in a group photo taken shortly thereafter; I like to think the others had seen The Lord of the Rings recently and didn’t want to become Putin’s Ringwraiths.

Anyway, we’ll see what new acts of exaggerated villainy 2023 brings. My money is on Putin trying to build a Death Star.

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