Putin's collection of oddball allies grows by the day. It's time the west got tougher | Simon Tisdall

Russia's isolated war-criminal president is cultivating the regimes in North Korea and Iran. But more dispiriting are the Putin-fanciers in South Africa and Slovakia Vladimir Putin must be feeling fairly desperate if he's relying on Kim Jong-un for friendship and support. There's a reason why North Korea's unpredictable dictator is among the world's most ostracised leaders. Nobody likes him and he don't care, as the saying goes. Yet Russia's despised, isolated war-criminal president is in much t...