invasion painted on people's doors, people are literally being chased out of the country and hounded. >> david, you published a fascinating interview with a leading scholar of russian history who said that putin's brand is, quote, all powerful and brittle at the same time and, quote, creates the circumstances of its own undermining. can you explain what he means and do you agree? >> i do agree. i think what he's trying to describe is the way the kremlin works now. there's no collective leadership in the kremlin, as there even used to be during the pulit bureaus of the communist era, particularly after stalin. what you've got increasingly year after year the circle around putin became smaller and smaller and smaller, and any contrary advice, any sliver of ideological difference became rare and now it's vanished. you have very, very few people around putin now giving him advice of any kind, all they do