Sadly Russians need to be forced to get rid of their dictator. The only way to do it is if Putin stops getting more money from outside, and it will be extremely painful at this point.
Our media has to appeal to emotions with zero substance because no one will read anything of substance.
IMO the way for Putin to get what he wants is exactly what this stupid article is advocating for. He is either in for a long drawn out insurgency that can't really be won or an escalation to the doorstep of WW3 that he will enter negotiations with all the leverage.
We are basically anti-Machiavellians. Instead of the end justifying the means we believe that as long as we have good intentions we don't care about the outcome.
> To a point where he almost doesn't need to fix elections (it just makes him feel a bit "safer") or manipulate the press.
He got to that position by subjugating and manipulating the media in the first place. True, he may not need to do it to win elections "now", but if he cuts the media loose he'll easily lose his popularity. Russians live and breath TV and Putin knows it.
Putin may as well consolide his power further should anyone express thier disatisfaction with him. Im talking about the power hierarchy he’s sitting atop of, not just the Russian populace who already have some significant percentace of dissatisfaction - the real number is unknown since voting is heavily rigged and manipulated and the electorate is heavily manipulated by obvious propaganda.
I've always wondered how this could work in practice. It's hard enough to convince your average American fox news fan that putin might not be a great guy, how exactly are you going to convince a Russian?
I guess this is a war where Putin must not lose. Either he'll die/killed afterwards or there'll be huge meme influx that Putin lose to a comedian, destroying his image.
The problem is that a significant chunk of the population only watches the Russian TV broadcasts, many don’t even have access to the internet. Though many immigrants here in the states watch the same shit. It’s sad.
I do think Putin’s days are numbered. With the way the war is going, combined with the global support for Ukraine and the sanctions. I don’t see how the oligarchs, the people around him, and the Russian public will take much more of this. Though, of course, I could be wrong and we could be witnessing a new North Korea type situation.
reply