A veteran former State Department medical officer and psychiatrist thinks Vladimir Putin will have the upper hand in dealing with Joe Biden because he’s a younger, unchallenged strongman with virtually no political opposition or term limits and can run out the clock on his elderly American rival. The former KGB agent has also shown a propensity for trying out psychological tricks on Western leaders, like when he called his oversize black Labrador into a room where he was meeting with Germany’s Angela Merkel, a well known canine-phobe. 

“Putin is a smart, smart, highly trained former KGB agent who knows how to use tactics like that to his advantage," says Kenneth Dekleva, a longtime former State Department physician and psychiatrist who served five years at the American embassy in Moscow during his 16-year career.  He has published profiles of Putin, China’s Xi Jinping, and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.

During an interview for a special SpyTalk podcast Friday, co-host Jeanne Meserve asked D…