४ फेब्रुवारी, २०२२

"Despite all of that power and all of that money, despite total control over the information space and total domination of the political space, Putin must know, at some level, that he is an illegitimate leader."

"He has never won a fair election, and he has never campaigned in a contest that he could lose. He knows that the political system he helped create is profoundly unfair, that his regime not only runs the country but owns it, making economic and foreign-policy decisions that are designed to benefit the companies from which he and his inner circle personally profit.... He wants Ukrainian democracy to fail. He wants the Ukrainian economy to collapse. He wants foreign investors to flee. He wants his neighbors—in Belarus, Kazakhstan, even Poland and Hungary—to doubt whether democracy will ever be viable, in the longer term, in their countries too. Farther abroad, he wants to put so much strain on Western and democratic institutions, especially the European Union and NATO, that they break up. He wants to keep dictators in power wherever he can, in Syria, Venezuela, and Iran. He wants to undermine America, to shrink American influence, to remove the power of the democracy rhetoric that so many people in his part of the world still associate with America. He wants America itself to fail. These are big goals, and they might not be achievable. But Putin’s beloved Soviet Union also had big, unachievable goals. Lenin, Stalin, and their successors... failed—but they did a lot of damage while trying."

From "The Reason Putin Would Risk War/He is threatening to invade Ukraine because he wants democracy to fail—and not just in that country" by Anne Applebaum (The Atlantic).

८० टिप्पण्या:

MadTownGuy म्हणाले...

Until I saw 'Putin,' I was thinking 'Biden.'

Kevin म्हणाले...

"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt."

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Putin pays off rivals in proportion to how much trouble they could cause him, with concessions to run and so forth. Keeping the system going is the highest priority, not undermining democracy. Otherwise the rivals cause him trouble and he's gone.

If you want to reform Russia, you have to make a deal where all the rivals come out better as well as Putin. No good just dealing with Putin.

gilbar म्हणाले...

...Biden must know, at some level, that he is an illegitimate leader."

"He has never won a fair election, and he has never campaigned in a contest that he could lose. He knows that the political system he helped create is profoundly unfair, that his regime not only runs the country but owns it...

fify!

TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed म्हणाले...

"Must know"? I didn't realize Applebaum was a mind reader. Maybe Putin doesn't know because his measure of what makes an "illegitimate" leader is different from Applebaum's. He may be a bastard but he's probably not illegitimate.

Of course, Applebaum knows what makes a leader illegitimate. She voted for Biden, who is far less legitimate than Putin.

Temujin म्हणाले...

I wonder if the same thoughts ever enter Joe Biden's mind?

I wonder if anything other than "Who is that nice lady helping me off the podium?" enters his mind.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

Elections where ________ can't lose? hmmm - American Democraticals are very keen on that idea.

MadisonMan म्हणाले...

The underlying notion of Applebaum's writing seems to be that Putin might be vulnerable to shaming by The Atlantic. There is zero evidence that is the case. So why is The Atlantic/Applebaum publishing this? As if she knows what Putin wants too! Sheesh.

rcocean म्हणाले...

Applebaum is a Neo-Con warmonger. She's also married to a Pole, and her family background is Polish-Jewish. All the old ethnic hatreds of Eastern Europe still dwell within her.

There's nothing illegimate about Putin, he was elected. And he has a somewhat high approval rating. In fact, he has a higher rating than Biden, who stole the election, and needed 25,000 NG troops to protect him from the American People. Or at least that's what Biden thought.

EH म्हणाले...

Ok, now do China, North Korea, Cuba, or probably 50+ other countries of the world. Putin is a legitimate leader. What she must mean is that he's undemocratic. Lots of countries that aren't democracies have "elections" (I think all of the ones I named do in some form).

Yancey Ward म्हणाले...

Lots and lots of mind-reading in that essay.

NYC JournoList म्हणाले...

I very much doubt that at some level Putin believes he s an illegitimate leader. For one, I doubt he tie legitimacy to elections. He rose through the ranks of the KGB after all. This author fails to imagine a mind working differently from her own.

rehajm म्हणाले...

He has never won a fair election...

...he claims, without evidence.

wendybar म्हणाले...

Now do bumbling Biden.

J Scott म्हणाले...

This is so histrionic and hyperbolic.

Putin wants Democracy itself to fail!!! What does that even mean really.

And I seriously doubt Putin give's a tinker's damn that someone thinks he's an illegitimate leader. The facts on the ground are what they are.

henge2243 म्हणाले...

It's only the loser that complains about fairness. Trump is a good example. He complains that the election was rigged. So what. You lost. If you could have rigged it so that you won, you should have. If you could have but didn't, you deserve to lose, you are a loser.

It's always the losers carping about rigged elections, illegitimate leaders etc.., etc... If you'd won, we wouldn't hear anything about it. I guess that people learned the wrong lessons from getting those participation trophies all of their lives.

John henry म्हणाले...

Does Trudeau "know, at some level, that he is an illegitimate leader"?

He was never elected Prime Minister of Canada.

He was appointed by Queen Elizabeth. (Via her governor general)As were the rest of the cabinet. Granted, she does appoint the person recommended by the majority party. But the parties all know not to recommend someone who might be unacceptable.

Kurt Schlichter posited a need to invade Canada to save it from its non-democracy.

Trudeau better get his act together and shut those truckers down. They are giving our truckers ideas and we run the risk of a convoy in the US. We can't have that. Kurt thinks we should offer military help if Trudeau needs it to shut them down.

Canadian PM Oath of Office:

I, Justin Trudeau, do swear (declare) that I will be faithful and bear true
allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada,
Her Heirs and Successors.
So help me God.

John henry म्हणाले...

Does Trudeau "know, at some level, that he is an illegitimate leader"?

He was never elected Prime Minister of Canada.

He was appointed by Queen Elizabeth. (Via her governor general)As were the rest of the cabinet. Granted, she does appoint the person recommended by the majority party. But the parties all know not to recommend someone who might be unacceptable.

Kurt Schlichter posited a need to invade Canada to save it from its non-democracy.

Trudeau better get his act together and shut those truckers down. They are giving our truckers ideas and we run the risk of a convoy in the US. We can't have that. Kurt thinks we should offer military help if Trudeau needs it to shut them down.

Canadian PM Oath of Office:

I, Justin Trudeau, do swear (declare) that I will be faithful and bear true
allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada,
Her Heirs and Successors.
So help me God.

Balfegor म्हणाले...

Didn't Applebaum support the Maidan putsch in the Ukraine? Ironic for her to talk about "fair election" as the measure of legitimacy. Yanukovych was corrupt, sure, but the OSCE observers found the 2010 election mostly fine.

Many Americans accept that process legitimacy -- that the outcome of a free and open democratic process confers legitimacy -- isn't the only source of legitimacy. Indeed, every time people complain that an act by a democratically elected government (e.g. Hungary or Poland) is illegitimate or, on the other hand, that acts by undemocratic, unelected bureaucrats should be treated as more legitimate than the acts of democratically elected officeholders (e.g. Trump vs. the State Department bureaucrats), those people are outright rejecting process legitimacy in favour of some other principle.

Well, that's probably Putin's argument too.

Achilles म्हणाले...

Anne Applebaum makes the mistake of saying the quiet part out loud.

It looks like Russia is not the country starting this war.

Putin is illegitimate. But the illegitimate leader that is actually pushing for this war is not him.

These people are making it too easy.

Biden is finished.

John henry म्हणाले...

This is Ann Applebaum's husband. She is not a completely "disinterested journalist". She was not disinterested when she was arguing to let pedophile Roman Polanski back into the US either. (Source Wikipedia)

Take anything she has to say about Russia or Ukraine with a large dose of salt.

Radosław Sikorski

Radosław Tomasz "Radek" Sikorski ([raˈdɔswaf ɕiˈkɔrskʲi] (audio speaker iconlisten); born 23 February 1963) is a Polish politician and journalist who is a Member of European Parliament. He was Marshal of the Sejm from 2014 to 2015 and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Donald Tusk's cabinet between 2007 and 2014. He previously served as Deputy Minister of National Defense (1992) in Jan Olszewski's cabinet, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (1998–2001) in Jerzy Buzek's cabinet and Minister of National Defense (2005–2007) in Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and Jarosław Kaczyński's cabinets.


John LGBTQBNY Henry

SGT Ted म्हणाले...

What a stupid take. Rulers like Putin consider themselves legitimate because they crush the opposition and hold power.

robother म्हणाले...

"He wants America itself to fail." "They hate us for our freedom." If Ukraine goes, then it's Belarus, Kazakstan, Poland, Hungary, even the EU and NATO Western Europe, kind of like a row of dominoes.

The Deep State playbook for eternal war is getting rather frayed and repetitive, no?

gilbar म्हणाले...

Temujin said... about Jo Biden...
I wonder if anything other than "Who is that nice lady helping me off the podium?" enters his mind.


Seriously, Can Anyone remember any other President that would only be seen with his wife?
Dr Jill isn't just Always with Joe; she leads him out the podium, holding him by the hand
When he is done babbling; Dr Jill comes over, takes him by the hand, and leads him away
Every time!

Iman म्हणाले...

Teh 80s are calling, Applebum, they want their foreign policy back.

Christopher B म्हणाले...

The junta, or the people running the junta, appear to pretty desperately want a war. Not a real war with a real enemy like China but one that they mistakenly think that they can control once it starts.

Lem Vibe Bandit म्हणाले...

This is closer to a coherent vision of what Putin is really up to. Democratic government is his kryptonite.

Bob Boyd म्हणाले...

Yeah, it just ruins it for Putin that the cool kids don't like him.

Michael K म्हणाले...

It's always the losers carping about rigged elections, illegitimate leaders etc.., etc... If you'd won, we wouldn't hear anything about it. I guess that people learned the wrong lessons from getting those participation trophies all of their lives.

So, I guess you agree that Hillary and Gore are losers. Right ?

Lefties are so transparent.

By the way, Biden and Putin share more than their oil and gas policies. Neither was elected.

Skeptical Voter म्हणाले...

Yada Yada Yada. The dogs at The Atlantic bark but the caravan moves on. `

On a standard of "legitimately elexted" Putin is probably close to or just below the median among all the world's "leaders".

n.n म्हणाले...

Demos-cracy... democracy was aborted in Kiev with a Western-backed coup during Obama's administration. One of several global wars that was either saved or created during his time in office. Perhaps a "Kosovo" solution would resolve The Atlantic et al's avoidance to reconcile with our fatal Choice(s).

Robert Cook म्हणाले...

"Lots of countries that aren't democracies have "elections" (I think all of the ones I named do in some form)."

Including us!

LA_Bob म्हणाले...

Years ago I enjoyed reading Anne Applebaum. No more. Here's my "read" on Putin's mind.

"Despite all of that power and all of that money, despite total control over the information space and total domination of the political space, Putin must know, at some level, that he is an illegitimate leader."

I cannot imagine for a minute that any Czar of Russia would ever consider his legitimacy to be tied to the opinions of his subjects.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

Not sure how he's a failure.

Some have suggested that he's the richest man on earth.

Not too bad...

Not Sure म्हणाले...

If we all just agree to refer to Putin as the Kaiser, we can recycle all the arguments for joining in the fun at the Argonne Forest and save a lot of time and energy. Make the world safe for democracy!

Mike Sylwester म्हणाले...

I admire much of Anne Appelbaum's writing, but she has become rather nutty in recent years.

She has become obsessed about "authoritarianism" -- which seems to be largely politics that she just does not like.

=====

Putin is Russia's President because he is very popular and always wins elections.

To deal with that reality, people who do not like him just say that he is "authoritarian".

Readering म्हणाले...

I worry Putin's threats are a sign he wants to emulate Stalin in 1939-40, who sought to get back parts of the pre-1914 empire by seizing Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and parts of Romania, Poland and Finland. Stalin may have overplayed his hand at the end of WW2 when he insisted that Belarus and Ukraine were independent and entitled to their own seats in what became the original 51 member UN.

wendybar म्हणाले...

henge2243 said...It's always the losers carping about rigged elections, illegitimate leaders etc.., etc... If you'd won, we wouldn't hear anything about it. I guess that people learned the wrong lessons from getting those participation trophies all of their lives.

Stacey Abrams, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, ect..ect..ect..And NOW if you listen to Biden and Harris, they are already talking about how the next election is going to be rigged. We all know he's the REAL loser.

Ampersand म्हणाले...

Applebaum is a strange case. The three books of hers that I've read -- Gulag, The Crushing of Eastern Europe, and Red Famine -- all demonstrate thorough scholarship and deep insight into the social dynamics of tyranny. But TDS, and Mrs. Jobs' hypermoney, seem to have transmuted her into a reliable disseminator of whatever is the current DNC party line.
I feel great confidence that Putin does not feel troubled about his legitimacy vel non. His goals are pretty accurately summarized by Applebaum, though, which forces us to ask, which recent president adopted policies more likely to frustrate Putin? Applebaum is utterly incapable of pointing out the connection between Biden's energy (and other)policies, and Putin's aggressiveness.

Kai Akker म्हणाले...

I seem to remember reading that Ukraine is a financial basket case of major proportion. Were Putin really as shrewd as he's made out, he might want us to have to take it on as a protected buffer nation. There are millions of compelling reasons for the Bidens to think the same thought. Then, if Putin has the patience, once we've bailed the Ukraine out, he could take it over more profitably.

Jobiden is a huge opportunity to Putin, but using him over a period of time might be a wiser course than provoking a feckless man with terrible polling numbers who might just be glad of a handy little war right about now.

GDI म्हणाले...

Joe and Vlad ... brothers from different mothers.

Greg The Class Traitor म्हणाले...

"Despite all of that power and all of that money, despite total control over the information space and total domination of the political space, Putin must know, at some level, that he is an illegitimate leader."
"He has never won a fair election, and he has never campaigned in a contest that he could lose. He knows that the political system he helped create is profoundly unfair, that his regime not only runs the country but owns it, making economic and foreign-policy decisions that are designed to benefit the companies from which he and his inner circle personally profit....

From "The Reason Putin Would Risk War/He is threatening to invade Ukraine because he wants democracy to fail—and not just in that country" by Anne Applebaum (The Atlantic).


Now do Biden. Now do the Democrats who are fighting to make US Elections entirely worthless, because you can't have an honest election without rigorous election security (see Iraq, and the people celebrating that they had an Election Day, with a secret ballot (not one you put in an envelope, that other people can examine), and every single voter had their thumb marked with indelible ink, to make sure they didn't vote twice).

Joe Biden is an illegitimate President, and teh Democrats are fighting to destroy US democracy, calling any attempt to secure elections illegitimate.

Anthony म्हणाले...

But apparently the Chinese are way better.

Narayanan म्हणाले...

rhhardin said...
Putin pays off rivals in proportion to how much trouble they could cause him, with concessions to run and so forth. Keeping the system going is the highest priority, not undermining democracy. Otherwise the rivals cause him trouble and he's gone.

If you want to reform Russia, you have to make a deal where all the rivals come out better as well as Putin. No good just dealing with Putin.
-------
magna carta in russian>>>??????

великая хартия вольностей
velikaya khartia volnostey

Greg The Class Traitor म्हणाले...

ehajm said...
He has never won a fair election...

...he claims, without evidence.


1: Milwaukee, Detroit, Philly, and Fulton County vote counters, all Democrat, stopped counting election night 2020 while they still had votes to count.
2: Detroit, Philly, and Fulton County vote counters, all Democrat, all blocked poll watchers from being able to closely observe and stop what the poll workers were doing. you have to be able to stop someone, and demand proof that what they're doing is in fact legal, in order to be an actual poll watcher

Neither of those things are ever done by honest vote counters. Because honest vote counters know that not only does the vote have to be honest, it has to appear to be honest

So, we have solid evidence, all publicly available, that the Democrat vote counters acted in such a way as to make it impossible to validate their results (no, recounting the ballots after they've had the ability to alter them doesn't count as validation).
Since all 4 of those sets of vote counters were in States that flipped from Trump to Biden, and any 3 of them going the other way would make a Trump victory, we have solid evidence that Biden is an illegitimate President

Chris Lopes म्हणाले...

This is one of those "you keep using that word, I don't think it means what you think it means" kind of things. While Putin is a total thug, he's as legitimate a leader as the Russians are likely to get without a massive cultural overhaul. He's at least as legitimate as any Saudi King, Chinese Premier, or Cuban dictator. Other cultures work differently than ours, get over it.

David53 म्हणाले...

The question the mind reader didn’t answer is if and when Putin is going to invade Ukraine. That’s the question many people want answered, what a waste of mind reading ability.

Big Mike म्हणाले...

Have the Russians ever had a fair election? They went from the Czar to Lenin to Stalin to Khrushchev to Brezhnev to Andropov to Gorbachev to Yeltsin to Putin to Medvedev and back to Putin. At their fairest they resemble elections in very blue areas of this country, where a favored candidate is selected by the local Democrat steering committee, “wins” a rigged primary, and waltzes to victory over the Republican opponent because of stupid, “yellow dog” Democrat voters.

Andrew म्हणाले...

I don't understand Applebaum. Her books on the gulag, and the Ukrainian famine, are exceptional. She clearly understands the nature and history of Soviet communism. Why couldn't she say a word of praise for Trump when he was actually advocating policies against Putin? Why couldn't she see through all the Russia collusion nonsense? Why didn't she take Trump's side during his first impeachment? It was Trump - not Obama, not Biden - who actually took Putin seriously, and confronted him across the board.

Jaq म्हणाले...

Democracy has failed in the US. We installed a corrupted simpleton and the press will not discuss. Workers rebelling against overweening govt interference in their lives are called fascist, information is withheld from the electorate. Applebaum is just one more mouthpiece of the ruling class with one more repeat of the refrain: “The peasants are revolting! They stink on ice!”

Jaq म्हणाले...

Why should we send one kid to pull Biden’s chestnuts out of the fire?

narciso म्हणाले...

so was the russian election in 96, legit, questions remain, now did he provoke ryazan, that's another open question, of course, that's even more complicated because russian and chechen officials were meeting in southern france, about a month before,

narciso म्हणाले...

has putin like michael corleone ordered men (and women) to be killed, I don't think there's much doubt about that, but compared to the blood price that applebaum chronicled for 60 some years, its near beer,

Lurker21 म्हणाले...

It's always the losers carping about rigged elections, illegitimate leaders etc.., etc...

I fear the moral implications of that point of view, but recognize some real world validity in it. Putin engineered the system that would give him validity as a leader. Team Biden did the same for Biden. The idea that one is legitimate and the other isn't is a bit suspicious. The assumption seems to be that Applebaum, The Atlantic, and Western journalists bestow legitimacy on world leaders. "Our Democracy" means support for what liberal elites want, and supporting what those elites want makes leaders democratic and legitimate.

Where does Applebaum go off the rails in her rant? I think the idea that Putin is out for global power rather than predominance and security in his own sphere of influence is implied in her article and goes beyond what we actually know or could reasonably expect to be true. It's also implied that the US has been a more benign force in international affairs than we have been in recent years. And if we collapse, that's something we have to own, not something we can blame on Putin.

Rabel म्हणाले...

Was Applebaum ever married to Putin? That reads like an ex talking.

Jaq म्हणाले...

At first I didn't believe the story that Trudeau was Castro's son, despite all of the resemblance stuff, the video clips of his wife flirting with Castro, her note that she was going to extend Castro a personal welcome, "on behalf of Canada," in his hotel room, her open reputation as a star-f*cker, Justin's openly distraught speech on Castro's death, because the date of Justin's conception matched the honeymoon, but now I learn that they extended their honeymoon in plenty of time to have conceived Justin... to the Caribbean.

Chris Lopes म्हणाले...

"Democratic government is his kryptonite."

Putin stays in power as long as he keeps the oligarchies in Russia happy. They don't care about ideological arguments, they care about money. As long as Russia's natural resources (like oil and natural gas) can be sold at premium prices, everyone will be happy and Putin can go on pretending to be an 80's action movie star who happens to run a country. So it's not democratic government that is his Kryptonite, it's low energy prices. Thank goodness Biden is helping him out on that.

wildswan म्हणाले...

What she is saying is that Putin is copying the Communist strategy of the Fifties - overthrow or discredit democratic governments, break up alliances such as NATO among democratic governments which resist forcible overthrow of democratic governments, separate the US from Europe. Use force in some cases, propaganda in others. That was their strategy.
But now consider her application to our times. She says Russia supported Trump in an effective way so she is saying that the Trump presidency was non-democratic in that it was the result of Russian interference. She is saying that the 2020 election was fair and free suggesting it was a return to democracy so that objections to it are part of a Russian disinformation plan to undermine democracy. In other words she says Putin is using the Communist strategy and is being more successful against the USA. But note that, according to Applebaum, Putin's success is not the rise of Bernie Sanders or AOC as you might expect but the rise of Trump. So this is a case, I think, of past knowledge - how the Soviets deployed against Poland - overwhelming the ability to perceive the present rather than assisting in the ability to see what is going on. Putin is not a Communist just because he uses Communist strategies. He is a rich man fighting to keep what he got from the fall of Communism. 45 is not a Communist just because the workers of the world support him. The workers have always supported democracy and 45 was showing how democracy could still work for them.
I have no clear idea of what Putin is doing in the Ukraine except I feel pretty sure he doesn't want to take over a resisting aware country which is what the Ukraine is now. That would be to resume where the Soviets left off and where Putin found himself when the Wall fell. It's more likely that he is trying to show up Joe Biden's weaknesses to the world, knowing that Biden will protect Hunter rather than the USA.

Jaq म्हणाले...

"Gangel said she received calls from four members of the Congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol 'who felt devastated for our democracy' now that Zucker has exited CNN."

LOL.

Achilles म्हणाले...

wendybar said...

Now do bumbling Biden.

She just did.

Narayanan म्हणाले...

robother said...
"He wants America itself to fail." "They hate us for our freedom." If Ukraine goes, then it's Belarus, Kazakstan, Poland, Hungary, even the EU and NATO Western Europe, kind of like a row of dominoes.

The Deep State playbook for eternal war is getting rather frayed and repetitive, no?
-----------
Deep State also wants to encircle and "reform/defeat" Russia with the Dominoies >>> wagging the dominos

Jaq म्हणाले...

Joe Biden has blocked all of the NG pipelines to Europe except Putin's. Putin is known to have said that the fracking was a threat to Russia's national interests; Joe got right on it. Hillary explained, in a leaked speech, that Russia was funding Canadian anti-pipeline groups; Joe got right on that one first day. When Putin says "shit!", Joe Biden responds "What color?"

Maybe Applebaum could write about that? JKLOL!

narciso म्हणाले...

gangel is mrs dan silva, you can see her influence on his last two potboilers,

narciso म्हणाले...

gangel is mrs dan silva, you can see her influence on his last two potboilers, shambling man has been a soviet tool since the 70s,

JaimeRoberto म्हणाले...

My in-laws live in one of the countries in the wider neighborhood. They have doubts about democracy because of corruption and the EU. Sure, there was corruption during Communist times, perhaps even more than now, but it wasn't visible. As for the EU, they don't see dictates from Brussels bureaucrats as very democratic. All this is without the help of Russia.

Leland म्हणाले...

& @12:03pm, I found the mic, you dropped.

rcocean म्हणाले...

"The three books of hers that I've read -- Gulag, The Crushing of Eastern Europe, and Red Famine -- all demonstrate thorough scholarship and deep insight into the social dynamics of tyranny."

Really? I thought they were rehashes of what Robert Conquest wrote.

Rusty म्हणाले...

Readering@11:58
All you have to do is look at where Putin has troops stationed. All the countries that declared their independence after the Soviet Union fell. Putin is nostalgic.

Rt41Rebel म्हणाले...

Honey badger don't care. Honey badger doesn't give a shit.

Sebastian म्हणाले...

"Putin must know . . . He wants."

Applebaum knows Putin as well as she does Americans.

Putin must know we are fools. He wants us to listen to the Applebaums of the world.

Jupiter म्हणाले...

"An illegitimate leader"? Didn't he get 81 million votes in the last election?

Drago म्हणाले...

readering: "Stalin may have overplayed his hand at the end of WW2 when he insisted that Belarus and Ukraine were independent and entitled to their own seats in what became the original 51 member UN."

LOL

Stalin didn't need to "overplay his hand" since Stalin had Harry Hopkins and others working on his behalf.

William म्हणाले...

Perhaps Putin has more respect and clout in Russia precisely because he is not a democratic leader. Any nerd can win an election, but someone who can organize and establish a putsch, that's who the Russians want running things......People have all sorts of undemocratic and disreputable impulses that they wish to see their leaders impose on their country. Despotic rulers seem more the rule than the exception in Russia.

Big Mike म्हणाले...

Back when we lived in Fairfax County, Virginia, the wife and I could get a TV station on our antenna that played foreign TV shows, including the Swedish “Wallender” (vastly superior to Kenneth Branagh’s BBC abomination played on PBS stations), the other Swedish detective, “Martin Beck,” Japanese news on NHK, and Russia Today (aka RT). I had an opportunity to watch Vlad Putin in action a couple times, and his skills as a retail politician should not be underestimated.

One example. He is marching in some sort of memorial surrounded by whatever the Russians use for bodyguards the way we use the Secret Service, and an old man limps towards him wearing an old uniform and a bunch of medals on his chest. The bodyguards try to hustle the old man away, but Putin sees it and walks over. He will speak with the veteran of The Great Patriotic War. Staged? Hard to imagine otherwise. Good for a lot of votes? Hard to imagine otherwise. Could Joe Biden pull off something like that? Once upon a time, maybe.

We might laugh at the pictures of Putin riding a horse bare chested, but I will bet that his biceps and pecs are also worth a lot of votes from women.

Applebaum — and America’s “elite” — underestimate Putin at their, no, make that our, risk.

Stephen St. Onge म्हणाले...

        Applebaum gives the game away with her throwaway line concerning Brexit.

        Oh, “Western democratic solidarity” was undermined by Brexit!  Except that the European Union is anti-democratic by design.  All her fine ideals go out the window when the group she favors sees its political power threatened.

        International power politics is much like rival mafia families battling over turf.  The idea that there are good guys on either side is ludicrous.

Malesch Morocco म्हणाले...

Big Mike:

You left out Chernenko.

PB म्हणाले...

The Russian people like Putin. A lot.

Big Mike म्हणाले...

@Malesch, he wasn’t there long enough to know which way to the bathroom.

Greg The Class Traitor म्हणाले...

PB said...
The Russian people like Putin. A lot.

If that were true, heck if Putin thought that were true, he wouldn't feel the need to destroy anyone who challenges him.

You don't send assassins against critics when you're actually popular

RMc म्हणाले...

(Putin) wants America itself to fail (which) might not be achievable.

With this crew in charge, I give it a year, tops.