Page 24 - Putin Cannot News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

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...

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 ...

"i don't need to move to a fear—based model." and this is what we observed for the few first days of the war. he didn't close independent media before the war. he only closed them one week later, when he understood that things are not going according to the plan. and so, that is the moment when the transformation from spin to fear was actually complete. explain this to me, then. i understand your analysis, but the truth is, even if we accept the war is not going to plan, and it seems pretty clear it's not going to plan, vladimir putin still, it seems, according to polls — and polls are dif...

On his economic performance. then, as his economy was destroyed by corruption, by domination of his friends, by the domination of the state, he was losing popularity, and then he did annexation of crimea in 2014. his popularity shot through the roof. and that's a typical spin dictator war — without blood, very quick. now, then he was losing popularity again. there was a rise of very effective opposition. in particular, mr navalny, who was a very smart user of modern social media, which allowed to circumvent mr putin's propaganda machine. and that also forced mr putin to look for new sources ...

That there is a strong strain of nationalism, based on victimhood and resentment, inside your homeland, which runs very deep, and which putin is tapping into today? that's true. and this is a normal post—imperial nostalgia, which has been used and, indeed, reinforced by mr putin's propaganda. this is not unique to russia. many former empires have this problem. i live in france now. france has gone through a very painful period of decolonialising its narrative and its relationship with former colonies. i'm pretty sure that you can attest to something like this in great britain as well. but, y...