Comment by jltsiren
6 days ago
Russia is an oligarchic republic. It's neither a dictatorship nor a liberal democracy. And regardless of the power he has, Putin is still a product of the system. His eventual successor will quite likely be another similar leader.
Russia is a mafia that owns both a gas station and (unfortunately for its neighbors) nuclear weapons.
Russia is a civilization with 1200 years of history.
It's more accurate to say Russia's history as a distinct entity goes back around 850 years. Before that, it was part of Kyivan Rus', and the term "Ruthenian" primarily referred to the people and territory of modern-day Ukraine. Moscow Rus' was initially a peripheral, tribal offshoot of the larger Kyivan polity.
1 reply →
The word "oligarch" has "arch" in it, which means power. What power the supposed oligarchs had over the decision to invade the neighbors and start a massive wealth redistribution inside the country, that practically depraved them of what they had? Lisin refused to call himself "oligarch" in 2018 first, and everyone laughed at him at the time. Maybe he had better insight than the armchair experts, after all.
> regardless of the power he has, Putin is still a product of the system.
Yes, and the system in question is FSB, or vaguely siloviki in general, not the business elite. It's extremely decentralized.
Russia is an oligarchic republic.
Even 10 years ago this was no longer true. Putin completely quashed the oligarchy -- and what he succeeded in building in its place has been by far the strongest one-man system the country has seen since Stalin. The oligarchy will likely have some success in reasserting itself, at least for a while after he croaks/fades in a few years.
His eventual successor will quite likely be another similar leader.
You almost want to wish, right?
The problem with the system he created is that it can only be managed by someone very much like himself. But Putin's really quite unusual, both for Russia and when compared with virtually any leader we've ever known anywhere.
His "successor" will likely be an effective power vacuum, visible to the outside world as an open-ended period of instability. It's entirely possible (likely even) that the security agencies will try to someone up the flagpole again, at least for a while. But it's difficult to imagine that person having the actual battery of intelligence, skills -- and sheer force of will -- to run things the way Putin has.
See also: Такого как Путин - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk_VszbZa_s
Wait, here's a much more watchable vid for that song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtZUeHmpV6A