[Jim Noble]

According to the “cornered rat” theory

Not so much cornered rat as verletzter Bär, and the Germans have a lot of experience with that.

[elhombrelibre]

The reoccuring reference actually comes from a part of the Putin myth that he produced when he was creating his life story to sell himself to the Russian people as the new Tsar/Stalin.

[elhombrelibre]

See the documentary at the link and you'll see the myth of "the cornered" is explained.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/putins-way/