They still sell like the proverbial hot cakes.

They still sell like the proverbial hot cakes. In Moscow stores, T-shirts emblazoned with the face of Russian President, Vladimir Putin, remain popular ... among some citizens at least.

Only this week I read about a young Russian fashion designer who is working on a new collection of these T-shirts she will call: ??For??.

In a newspaper interview the young creator of these fashion accessories vociferously insisted that

the meaning behind this branding slogan was only too obvious in a country where a recent poll suggests 84 per cent of Russians are "For" Mr Putin.

No doubt the same fashionista would have welcomed Putin??s annual state-of-the-nation address to parliament yesterday. This, despite that fact that just hours before the President vowed to defend Russia against efforts to ??dismember?? it, gunmen were storming a building in Chechnya??s regional capital of Grozny.

Only later was the crisis in Chechnya brought under control and the Kremlin-backed leader of this restive southern republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, attested on his Instagram account that six terrorists had been "annihilated".

"Dismember"; "annihilated". Strong words both that very much resonate with the uncompromising mood of President Putin??s overall address in Moscow yesterday.

This was a fiercely patriotic speech in which ??Iron Putin?? - another T-shirt slogan - doggedly accused Russia??s enemies of seeking to carve it up and destroy its economy as a way to punish it for becoming strong.

Never one to flinch from such threats, the former KGB spy, speaking to both chambers in the Kremlin, insisted the Russian Federation was ??ready to meet any challenge of the times and win??.

This went down well with the 1,000 dignitaries, almost all of them loyal supporters.

What also went down well, was Putin??s insistence that the blame for Russia??s problems lay with the West or the ??enemies of yesterday?? who were trying to bring a new Iron Curtain down around Russia. These foes he said, wished on Russia the same fate as suffered by Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

??There is no doubt they would have loved to see the Yugoslavia scenario of collapse and dismemberment for us - with all the tragic consequences it would have for the peoples of Russia. This has not happened. We did not allow it,?? Putin said.

As for Western sanctions imposed over Russia??s involvement in Crimea and Ukraine, these would have happened anyway according to Putin??s line of argument.

Even when he pledged to keep Russia open to the world, there was an aggressive posturing to the Russian leader??s speech

??We will never pursue the path of self-isolation, xenophobia, suspicion and search for enemies. All this is a manifestation of weakness, while we are strong and self-confident.??

This is a far cry from the Vladimir Putin who first came to power in 1999. Back then Putin was a Russian patriot too but at least he was willing to cooperate with the West when it suited his interests.

At that time he was one of the first global leaders to offer his condolences after the 9/11 attacks, subsequently offering to share - some - Russian intelligence on al Qaeda with the United States. Admittedly throughout that time Putin never for a moment hesitated to protect Moscow??s interests against the West. Think of the 2008 war he launched against Georgia and its vehemently pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili to undercut Nato expansion or shutting of gas to Ukraine and the ??patriotic?? measure of the man was clear.

All this brinkmanship, however, was carefully calibrated to minimise repercussions while maximising gains. Not any more. Something about the Russian leader has changed as was evident from yesterday??s speech.

Today across the negotiating table, Western and other leaders face a very different Putin. Over the past several years he has consolidated power to a remarkable degree. While there are some credible opponents they are far from evident and must, for reasons of political survival, keep their heads below the parapet. In short, today Putin is increasingly autocratic.

Writing earlier this year in the influential Foreign Policy magazine, Mark Galleotti, Professor of Global Affairs at New York University, aptly summed up this shift in Putin??s political stance and outlook.

"He has come to see his role and Russia??s destiny as great, unique, and inextricably connected.

Even if this is merely an empire of, and in, his mind -with hazy boundaries and dubious intellectual underpinnings - this is the construct with which the rest of the world will have to deal, so long as Putin remains in the Kremlin.??

This last week has not been good for the Putin. The ruble, the price of oil, the huge South Stream pipeline project, all in ruins. In response Putin is not the first political leader in Moscow to have whipped up nationalist sentiment and hostility to the West to mask Russia??s economic problems.

Yesterday in his address Putin??s answers to Russia??s economic problems were as much a blast from the past has his diplomatic muscle-flexing over Crimea, Ukraine and Nato.

Tim Ash, an analyst at Standard Bank was among many who said he saw no new big ideas to help the economy or ease market pressure on Russian assets. ??This is old school, Cold War stuff.??

Likewise Sergey Aleksashenko, a former deputy head of the central bank, vented frustration with Putin??s failure to tackle the economy: ??There is nothing to discuss and nothing to expect. Everything will continue as it is. And that suits him.??

It??s not all bleak on Russia??s economic front however. While the size of its foreign reserves and the way they are accounted for is the subject of considerable debate, they are certainly at least several hundred billion dollars and possibly as much as the official figure of more than four hundred billion.

While not enough to float the economy in the face of long term depressed oil prices it is more than sufficient to provide Putin and Moscow??s finance officials with some breathing space.

As was evident from his speech yesterday, the pragmatic political fixer of the 2000s now genuinely believes that Russian culture and stature are both special and threatened and that he is the man to save it.

Billionaires may be fleeing the country and the urban middle classes growing increasingly disenchanted, eroding the very Russian power Putin so ardently seeks to revive, but what does this matter when you can continue to stoke nationalism?

As one Moscow watcher warned recently: "a spectre is haunting Europe, the spectre of Russian imperialism".