And yes, the irony cannot be lost even on Putin that protests are unmasking him at a time when a pandemic is masking everyone else. The following excerpt from the August 29 edition of The Economist explains his unmasking:
_________
NOTHING IS AS inspiring as seeing people take to the streets to demand their freedoms — and nothing is as terrifying for the dictators they are defying. In Belarus, among scenes that recall the revolts of 1989, people are turning out in their hundreds of thousands after a blatantly rigged election, heedless of the threat of state violence. In the Russian city of Khabarovsk tens of thousands march week after week to protest against the arrest of the local governor and the imposition of Moscow’s rules. Vladimir Putin is rattled. Why else is Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption crusader and Mr Putin’s greatest popular rival for the Russian presidency, lying poisoned in a Berlin hospital bed?
_________
In other words, both Belarussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin fear these defiant street protests will lead to their downfall. After all, they know all too well that similar demonstrations of “people power” led to the downfall of even stronger dictators like Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos and Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
But both men need only look to the way neighboring Ukrainians took to the streets to demand their freedoms, defying the oppressive regime of Viktor Yanukovych. Because nothing unmasked Yanukovych’s insecurity and cowardice quite like the way he hightailed it and ran to Russia seeking refuge.
Russia helped ousted Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych to flee from violent protests in February, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has said. …
Mr Yanukovych fled to Russia in February after protests in which more than 100 people died.
(BBC, October 24, 2014)
I ridiculed Putin’s ill-fated attempts to quell the (contagious) democratic fervor that led to Yanukovych’s ouster in many commentaries, most notably in “Russia to Ukraine: Be My Valentine or I Kill You!” February 14, 2014.
More to the point, though, Lukashenko is already telegraphing his intent to hightail it and run too:
The embattled Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has called on Vladimir Putin to help him quell the growing wave of protest inside the country, which has left his legitimacy in tatters and his regime facing its biggest crisis since he first came to power 26 years ago.
Lukashenko appealed to the Russian president’s visceral fear of revolution at home and suggested that if his regime fell, Putin too was in danger.
(The Guardian, August 15, 2020)
Except here’s the rub: Dictators around the world – from Erdogan of Turkey to Maduro of Venezuela – bank on Putin, the de facto godfather of dictators, offering them refuge if/when their proverbial sh*t hits the fan. But this means that the godfather himself has nowhere to run if/when his does …
No doubt this is why Putin is continually maneuvering to ensure he rules for life. And if that means killing off influential dissidents – from Alexander Litvinenko on the streets of London to Boris Nemtsov on the streets of Moscow – so be it.
But he must fear that it’s only a matter of time before tens of thousands marching in the streets of Khabarovsk metastasize into hundreds of thousands marching in the streets of Moscow. Because dictators rely on fear to rule. And history has shown time and again that, once oppressed people break that spell, the days of any dictator are numbered.
If/when that happens, Putin knows that his trumped-up constitution, which codifies terms for him to rule for life, won’t be worth the paper it’s written on.
As it happens, with all due respect to The Economist, I presaged Putin getting rattled weeks ago. I’m referring to “In Russia, Protests Trickle Like Sand from Putin’s Iron Fists” on July 26.
Come to think of it, though, a rattled Putin might explain his maniacal determination to get uber wannabe dictator Donald J. Trump elected and re-elected president of the United States. After all, only a President Trump could provide the kind of refuge for him that he provided for Yanukovych.
I have written many commentaries on Putin’s maneuverings in this regard, including most notably “‘Putin Told Me,’ Said Trump, His ‘Useful Idiot,’” December 21, 2019.
Of course, such refuge would give a whole new meaning to the farce Moscow on the Hudson. But this just gives you another compelling reason to vote to oust Trump in November.
Accordingly, I reiterate my PSA to “Bank your vote!”
Related commentaries:
Russia to Ukraine… protests trickle like sand… useful idiot… PSA – bank your vote…