[justa-hairyape]

The rad trail wasn't sloppiness.

That I can understand as a theory, but I do not quite see the practicality of its application. To illustrate - Putin wants to warn critics that they need to back off. Fine. But in doing so he has actually enhanced the criticism itself tremendously. So what was the real payoff in practical terms ? There seems to be some other message here. Not to critics or reporters because he is as you stated 'untouchable' by them.

[magslinger]

The message is "Run and you die tired." Remember he doesn't have to silence one way or another all his critics, just the ones who know something from their own experience.

The criticism hasn't been exactly deafening. Most of what I've seen has been reporting Putin's denials.

[GSlob]

"So what was the real payoff in practical terms ? "
You have to remember that he exists and functions in his own [civilizational] reference frame. That frame has its own, and rather peculiar for the outsiders, scale of values. And the payoff for him has to make sense in that reference frame. For example [as an illustration], intimidating the opponents could be valued as +100 points (benefit) and the temporary cooling of international relations [as a result of a scandal] as -25 points (cost). If so, then what is the choice?