Russian Government Resigns

[RioRico]

@DCnDC

Worked out great for the last guy to hold that title!

You mean the one who had his doctors executed?

[Flyer]

@asahi

Because as someone becomes more powerful they simultaneously become more vulnerable.

If Russia operates as an authoritarian government in control of a society that has more or less accepted that life in Russia is shit but ‘Hey this is Russia and we’ve got a long authoritarian tradition and a tradition of large scale kleptocracy - whaddya gonna do?’…well, that’s one thing. People know Putin’s the kingpin, but they figure that the whole system is rotten and what’s the difference between Putin and someone else, they figure.

But if someone like Putin consolidates power, then they become more of a target (Maduro is a case in point). In authoritarian societies like Russia, there’s almost always some degree of tension at the top of the government and tension from underneath. People like Putin survive by making sure he has alignment at the top. If he doesn’t, if there’s a break at the political level, the risk is that protest movements and would-be revolutionaries view that as weakness and take to the streets.

I’m sensing that some people with power in Russia aren’t exactly on the same page with Putin - or that if they are, Putin fears that they might not be for much longer. Putin has to stay in power to survive. He’s committed too many financial crimes, too many murders, made too many enemies. He will do whatever it takes to survive but even Putin knows he can’t just go out and slaughter people and murder all of his enemies in plain view.

As dictators go, Putin is actually one of the best ones (both personally and professionally) that we’ve seen in a long time.

He’s competent, he’s good at 4-dimensional chess, and he genuinely tries to look out for the best interests of his country. Russia could do a whole lot worse, and I think that most Russians know it.

[Johanna]

Spanish has a word for it: autogolpe, ‘self-coup’.

[Little_Nemo]

@Flyer

As dictators go, Putin is actually one of the best ones (both personally and professionally) that we’ve seen in a long time.

He’s competent, he’s good at 4-dimensional chess, and he genuinely tries to look out for the best interests of his country. Russia could do a whole lot worse, and I think that most Russians know it.

But he has the same flaw any dictator has; when Putin has to decide between the interests of Vladimir Putin and the interests of Russia, he chooses the interests of Vladimir Putin. And a dictatorial political system means he can do that.

Any government is going to serve the interests of those who control the government. In a dictatorship, that means the government will serve the interests of the dictator.

That’s why democracy is the best form of government. There’s nothing inherently better about a democratic government. But the government is controlled by a majority of the population so it has to serve the interests of a majority of the people. Or it gets replaced.

[Grim_Render]

Well, democracy is actually to give everyone as much of a say in things as possible. Making better decisions is a side effect.

But anyway, here is an alternative possibility: What if Putin is dying, or otherwise knows he is not going to have the health to retain power past the next election cycle? Is there a possibility he is trying to set up a government system to succeed him rather than picking a heir?

[RioRico]

In the Good Old Days, a change of government would be serenaded by firing squads. It’s much quieter now.