If your sole information source is the American or British media, you may believe that the Russian people will rise up to overthrow Putin, that Putin’s days as Russia’s leader are numbered, and that there is no way he will remain in power. As this piece at Politico by Mark Lawrence Schrad should make clear, it ain’t necessarily so:
Western hopes that the Russian people would rise up and topple Putin in a popular revolution seem further from reality today than at the start of the war. The smattering of protests across Russia during the first weeks of the war have largely fizzled out. Between the Kremlin propaganda machine in overdrive and criminalization of expressions of opposition, Putin’s approval in nationwide polls is now up to 83 percent, with 81 percent support for the “special military operation.â€
What’s more, Russian elites appear to be consolidating behind Putin. Rather than diversifying internationally and finding safe havens abroad, powerful oligarchs and cosmopolitan elites—many of them under Western sanctions—now understand that they are tethered to Russia and to Putin personally. Once-feuding factions are realizing they’re all now in the same boat. Few will bolt for greener pastures in Europe or the U.S., even if they could.
In an eye-opening account by independent Russian journalist Farida Rustamova on the tribulations of Russia’s political elites since the war, she quotes a high-ranking source in a sanctioned Russian company as saying “All these personal sanctions cement the elites. Everyone who was thinking about a new life understands that, for the next 10-15 years at least, their lives are concentrated in Russia, their children will study in Russia, their families will live in Russia. These people feel offended. They will not overthrow anyone, but will build their lives here.â€
Before the war, the dominant narrative of Kremlin-controlled media was that Russia is a mighty superpower—besieged on all sides by enemies and conspirators, both Western and homegrown—and only Putin could lead them. Lamentably, the coordinated international response to Putin’s bloody war has only solidified and reinforced that us-against-the-world narrative, and largely rallied the Russian people behind Putin.
He also does a good job of explaining something I have mentioned here many times: 21st century isn’t the Soviet Union, isn’t a personalist monarchy like the Russian Empire, and it isn’t a totalitarian dictatorship. Putin is in power because he is doing thing that are supported by the Russian people. Maybe they’re victims of Kremlin propaganda but I don’t think it’s that simple.
So, if you’re longing for a new, liberal democratic Russia to rise from the ashes of the Putin regime, dream on. That is not going to happen.
Please don’t construe this post as supportive of Putin or the Russians in any way. I’m just trying to tell you the honest truth so that when what should have been expected happens it doesn’t come as a surprise.
“Please don’t construe this post as supportive of Putin or the Russians in any way.”
I’m not quite sure why the proviso. A steely eyed statement of reality is what it is. And who believes the vast majority of the media, anyway?
These days if you say anything that doesn’t follow the preferred narrative, the only possibility is that you support Putin or the Russians.
Well, they tried to tar Trump with the Putin apologist label and that pretty much fell flat, except with the slack jawed.
I may be overly sensitive to the point. In investment committee meetings I can be coldly analytical and pretty critical of aspects of a transaction yet vote for it given the totality of the considerations. Failure to be a cheerleader sometimes draws criticism. But we aren’t playing tiddly winks.
And then there is this:
“….with the new talking point from some of the media being that there’s no evidence involving Joe Biden.
That excuse is false as there is all kinds of information that involved Joe Biden, including pictures and emails of him meeting with Hunter’s business partners.
But that excuse may be getting blown up in a very important place — the grand jury investigating Hunter Biden…… the grand jury asked a witness to identify who “the big guy†was in Hunter’s planned deal with a Chinese energy conglomerate.
The question arose after the witness was shown a piece of evidence while appearing in secret before the panel in Wilmington, Del…….
A bombshell email [cited] in October 2020 showed that one of Hunter Biden’s business partners, James Gilliar, outlined the proposed percentage distribution of equity in a company created for a joint venture with CEFC China Energy Co.
The March 13, 2017, plan included “10 held by H for the big guy?â€
Another former Hunter Biden partner, US Navy veteran Tony Bobulinski, later revealed that “the big guy†was Hunter’s dad, then the Democratic candidate for president, saying, “I have heard Joe Biden say he has never discussed his dealings with Hunter. That is false.â€
Joe Biden has denied that his son got money from China despite the demonstrable evidence presented on the floor of the Senate that he did get payments from CEFC to his firm Owasco.
On Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain dug the hole deeper and denied that Biden had any involvement.
“But, again, I want to just be really clear, these are actions by Hunter and his brother,†Klain told ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.†“They’re private matters. They don’t involve the president. And they certainly are something that no one at the White House is involved in.â€
……it sounds like the grand jury is looking closely at the involvement of “the big guy.†[Klain] is going to have to come up with a new spin after Tony Bobulinski confirmed who the big guy was and now the grand jury is homing in.
Washington, DC, lawyer Jim Trusty, a former chief of the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Section, called Klain’s remarks “a pretty amazing effort to distance Joe Biden from Hunter Biden†and pin any blame on the scandal-scarred first son.
“While we do not know all the evidence yet, there are credible reports of wire transfers in the millions, emails from the ‘laptop from hell’ of Hunter, and guys like Tony Bubulinski who credibly describe a kickback scheme with the now-sitting president of the US as a beneficiary,†Trusty said.
“When you see millions of dollars pouring into the hands of a reckless and unskilled man, you have to at least ask the question of ‘What did these foreign governments receive for these payments?’â€
Trusty noted that “it’s not like there is an identifiable product being sold to Russian oligarchs or provided to Burisma,†the Ukrainian energy company that paid Hunter Biden as much as $83,000 a month to sit on its board.
“The question is whether Joe Biden’s vice presidency was for sale and whether Joe was complicit in that sort of scheme,†he said.
I think that fits under the heading of what I have described as “corrupt but not illegal”. I think the corruption within American politics is massive, has grown over the years, and is assumed by most pols to be a perk of the job. I think that attitude needs to be crushed but that seems to be the perspective of just me and a few other reform-minded Democrats.
“If your sole information source is the American or British media, you may believe that the Russian people will rise up to overthrow Putin, that Putin’s days as Russia’s leader are numbered, and that there is no way he will remain in power. ”
Work has been busy so may not be reading as much as normal but I really dont remember anyone making these claims. I have read people saying they hope it will happen, that it is a possibility but not anyone claiming it is inevitable.
“, they tried to tar Trump with the Putin apologist label ”
Quoting Trump’s words about Putin was totally unfair. We need to remember to take him seriously, not literally. Or is it the other way around?
Steve
You don’t remember the president of the United States saying:
?
Doesn’t the president count as “someone”?
“Quoting Trump’s words about Putin was totally unfair. We need to remember to take him seriously, not literally. Or is it the other way around?”
One could try actually thinking, hard as that may be for you.
Yes. What does that have to do with people believing that Putin will be overthrown. Wanting or hoping for something does not mean it will happen. Show me the quote where Biden says he believes, not just Biden but anyone whose name I would recognize, who claims it is inevitable Putin will be overthrown.
You could try remembering Drew. Or reading. Either should work.
Steve
The line between “corrupt†and “illegal†seems blurred, even transactional, when it comes down to it’s application in judging one of the two major U.S. political parties. The democrats, in particular, have a wasteland of corruption bursting from their portfolios, but rarely do their actions cross the line and seen as criminal or illegal. Pelosi, her son Paul, Biden, Hunter, John Kerry and his step son, the Clintons, John Podesta – all involved with shady financial deals/entanglements with foreign countries like China, Russia, Ukraine – breeze by numerous sketchy escapades, unscathed without suffering any negative consequences for their devious behavior – except to get richer. Other people, not part of the Democrat organization, get plundered, convicted by the press or are endlessly investigated and easily impeached by the likes of an insider-trading diva by the name of Nancy Pelosi.