Vladimir Putin just got his butt kicked

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Donald Trump will never, ever stand up to his puppet master, Russian President Vladimir Putin – but was the entire world willing to bow down to Putin as well? That was the question today, as Russia attempted to install one of its own as the new president of Interpol. This would have handed Putin unchecked power worldwide. As it turns out, most of the world just told Putin to buzz off instead.

Kim Jong-yang of South Korea ended up winning the Interpol election today, beating Russian candidate Alexander Prokopchuk by about a 3-2 margin, according to the BBC and other sources. This is a big deal for a couple reasons. First, if Russia had won, it could have meant the end of Interpol carrying out international warrants against Russian criminals. In the extreme case, it could have ushered in an era in which Putin had foreign nationals arrested in false charges whenever they traveled abroad.

Second, this means that Vladimir Putin couldn’t find a way to bribe, blackmail, or intimidate the rest of the world into doing his bidding. It’s disturbing that 61 nations were in fact willing to put Russia in charge of Interpol, but what’s more important is that 101 decided they weren’t interested in whatever Putin was selling.

Even as the United States moves forward with the complex process of ousting Donald Trump and ending his illegitimate presidency, one of the big questions in the background has been how much of the world order would still be intact by the time Russia was done holding America hostage. If nothing else, Interpol still stands – and considering how badly Putin clearly wanted to take it over, this is a major loss for him.