(Information overload? Definitely - for those still reading government issue info on American Exceptionalism - but this is what I read regularly......CL)
The Americans are linear or convergent thinkers, who focus on one thing at a time. It's something you learned in high school.
Putin, by contrast, is a "lateral" multi-focus, multidimensional thinker using both imagination and logic creatively. He learned that on the streets. Asymmetric symmetry.