Page 21 - Putin Cannot News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

And these are people who support the war. last question, then. even if we were to imagine a russia where putin, for one reason or another, was off the scene, that wouldn't necessarily solve the problem, would it? i mean, this is much deeper than just whether putin can be removed from power. let me give you just polls before the war, right? so, if you actually look at polls in september and october, the levada center that you mentioned, the only major independent pollster in russia, they would show that support for putin's ruling party is just 30%. now, because of fraudulent election, they got ...

A dictatorship based on fear. this is not uncommon. this happens. and in the book, we describe the example of venezuela, where mr chavez was the spin dictator, while his successor, mr maduro, is a bloody, 20th—century, repressive, totalitarian dictator, who is using mass repression. 0k. so, that's an argument which allows you to say, "you know what? "i didn't get putin wrong. "i didn't misjudge him. "it's just that he's fundamentally "tra nsformed and changed. "so, it's not my misjudgement. "it's putin's change. " so, explain to me, if i'm to believe that, you've got to really persuade me of...

That's what he said. then the g7 said, "sorry, contracts are in dollars "and euros, we will pay contracts in euros. "if you like roubles, it's your problem," and gas continues to flow. and that's yet another argument actually challenging the austrian chancellor's statement that this particular embargo will cost europe more than it costs putin. no, putin will be hit harder by the embargo than european economy. let's now switch from just talking pure economics, which has been fascinating, and talk politics as well. as i indicated, till 2012, you were wired into the kremlin. you offered a great d...

Despite the fact the war isn't even going well. so, what are we to make of that? is this putin's war or, actually, is there something deeper going on? it's notjust putin's war. well, definitely not every russian supports this war, and i don't support this war, and together with mikhail baryshnikov and boris akunin, we launched a website called truerussia.org, where we fundraise for, among russians, to help ukrainian refugees, and we have a lot of people writing to us supporting this initiative. we also set up anti—war committee, where russians actually speak publicly against the war. however...

To argue that putin should be seen not as an old—style dictator wedded to violence, raw violence and raw fear, but as a more sophisticated operator, who wants to use some of the trappings of a democrat to enforce his authority. in a way, that was a charitable view of putin, and i wonder if you now feel that you got vladimir putin wrong? well, as i said, things change. and, indeed, in our book spin dictators, we, with daniel triesman, show that most of current dictators, most of 21st—century dictators are indeed dictators who pretend to be democrats and rely on deception, on manipulation of...