If Rudyard Kipling met Vladimir Putin, he'd have a stern word for that unsportsmanlike Russian chap.

How dare he put his hands on Pakistan! Doesn't he know the rules of the "Great Game" of the late nineteenth century, when Britain feared that Russian armies would advance out of Central Asia to overrun British-controlled India (which then included modern-day Pakistan)?

But the rules have changed. India, once a Russian ally, is buying weapons from America. And Pakistan, once America's Cold War ally against the Soviet Union, is becoming cozy with Russia.