|
SEALs dumb https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/837089464237293568
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2017 01:15
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 6, 2024 20:35 |
|
|
Navalny has been arrested a bunch. Think he might be more dangerous dead than alive, which is why he's still alive. But I'm not going to bet the farm that the Kremlin wouldn't turn his lights off.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2017 13:33
|
|
|
I think Putin might be in a more precarious position than the conventional wisdom over here assumes. First, the thing with Navalny that makes him dangerous to kill is that he's unlike other opposition figures (who have wound up dead). He's actually more nationalistic than Putin. This takes some explaining. The Putin system is not all that centralized, but is actually a weird, hybrid, federalized regime with local bosses existing in a clientistic relationship with the Kremlin. Ramzan Kadyrov -- Chechen gangster, reality T.V. show host and the world's no. 1 Jean Claude Van Damme fan -- is one of these guys: a local strongman. There are a lot of these local and regional bosses all over Russia enriching themselves. And corruption is endemic and everyone hates it except the bosses. So Navalny's politics are especially potent because (a) he's anti-corruption (b) he's a nationalist and wants to get rid of this clientistic form of federalism. The big wild card here is Trump. Because first of all, Putin has reaped benefits from exploiting anti-Americanism -- how can he now blame the opposition as the patsies of the United States now that Trump is in power? Second, Putin has been able to punch above his weight on the world stage by being unpredictable, which carried political benefits at home -- now the world is reacting to Trump. Third, Trump's own insurgent rise to the White House might be causing Putin to worry that Russia's opposition will be inspired by that. Also Russia's economy sucks.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2017 14:00
|
|