🇷🇺After 20 years in power, Vladimir Putin appears to be channelling his inner Bond villain to the extreme.
Mark Galeotti assesses the leader’s reign and what is motivating him
Thread 🧵👇
telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/2…
Mark Galeotti assesses the leader’s reign and what is motivating him
Thread 🧵👇
telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/2…
❌For the best part of two years, Putin has been kept in a biosecurity bubble of such severity that people scheduled to meet him spend a fortnight in guarded isolation.
And even then have to pass through a tunnel fogged with disinfectant and bathed in ultraviolet light
And even then have to pass through a tunnel fogged with disinfectant and bathed in ultraviolet light
➡️Beyond a relative handful of his closest aides and friends, everyone has become a two-dimensional figure on a screen to him, his country a foreign land experienced through the TV news
No wonder he seems more isolated, even paranoid, writes Mark Galeotti.
✍️Even without Covid, long-serving leaders don’t age well, and it is becoming increasingly clear that – like so many autocrats – Putin is becoming a caricature of himself
✍️Even without Covid, long-serving leaders don’t age well, and it is becoming increasingly clear that – like so many autocrats – Putin is becoming a caricature of himself
🔴After 20 years in power, he is less willing than ever to be disagreed with and appears to believe himself indispensable.
He may occasionally flirt with the idea of stepping down, but that seems to be becoming less, not more likely over time
He may occasionally flirt with the idea of stepping down, but that seems to be becoming less, not more likely over time
➡️In part, this is a matter of trust.
In a system without true rule of law, it would mean handing power over his and his friends’ fates and fortunes to a successor.
Putin is not a man to trust easily, at the best of times
In a system without true rule of law, it would mean handing power over his and his friends’ fates and fortunes to a successor.
Putin is not a man to trust easily, at the best of times
🇷🇺This is a man who grew up running with street gangs in the post-war ruins of Leningrad.
And who was so eager to join the KGB – the biggest gang in town – that he tried to apply when he was still a schoolboy
And who was so eager to join the KGB – the biggest gang in town – that he tried to apply when he was still a schoolboy
✍️Mistrustful and awkward, with few friends and confidants, he finds himself surrounded by a claque of yes-men and opportunists…
…who have learned that the safest thing to do is to flatter his prejudices and applaud his whims
…who have learned that the safest thing to do is to flatter his prejudices and applaud his whims
❌No one is willing to tell him that he has time and again misjudged the Ukrainian people and that his pressure does no more than drive them further away
Read the full story 👇
telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/2…
Read the full story 👇
telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/2…
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