And Why Do So Many Idiots Opine on Russia?

What many people miss about the Putin regime is how sensitive it actually is to public opinion, despite its authoritarian tendencies.

Sweet Jesus on the cross. What “public opinion” can there be in a country where the media are owned by the state and even online expression is increasingly policed by said state? Putin hates being criticized. But Putin is not the regime and the regime is not Putin. His personal quirks and foibles should not be conflated with the regime at large.

Getting the economy on a more even keel and improving living conditions for the silent majority is high on the list of priorities for the Kremlin.

You’ve got to be every shade of fool to believe that the Kremlin wants to improve the living conditions of the majority. In 2011-12, the Kremlin saw pretty much the entire (small) middle class of Russia march against the regime. People who achieve a higher standard of living tend to develop a series of needs that go beyond getting food and shelter (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, hello?). If there are more people who have the resources and the leisure to think about politics, travel, see the world, get their information from any other source than Putinoid TV, the likelihood that there will be discontent with the regime increases.

As I told you a couple of days ago, the massive forest fires in Russia that are devastating entire regions in Siberia are barely getting a footnote in the Russian media. The victims were told by the authorities not to expect any aid. This information is extremely easy to find online. Yet a silly bit of fluff who considers himself a reporter sweeps the facts aside and relies, instead, on the stupid lies Putin offered in his lying press conference that only the congenitally dumb take seriously even in Russia.