Autocracy By the People For the People

Berezniki (photo: Macrep Choa)

Apparently, Putin has high approval ratings from Russians—despite all the reports of emigration ("Shaken At First, Many Russians Now Rally Behind Putin's Invasion," NYT, 4/1/22). Anne Applebaum and others have written on the mechanism by which tyrants like Putin, Bolsonaro and Orban perpetuate autocracy. A recent Times story gave in depth reporting on the resistance to Lukashenko in Belarus ("The Battle for the Mural and the Future of Belarus," NYT, 3/30/22). It’s chilling reading. But the bottom line is that even dictators serve at the pleasure of vox populi whether their vote is valid or not. Caesar’s murder by Brutus in 44 AD was in fact sanctioned by Romans. That’s the significance, in fact. One's always surprised by the televised images of arenas filled with Trump fanatics. Who are these people? Where do they come from? You don’t see much of Trump on CNN anymore, but he runs a good chance of being reelected. By the way what does that mean for his old pal Putin since Trump and the Russian leader belong to the same crew of tyrants who have proved so efficient maintaining each other’s political longevity? Putin has another friend too, Xi Jinping. With Russia a bona fide member of the UN’s Security Council, what does that mean for the future of the organization? It would be a little like Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany joining the League of Nations. Imagine a clean glass structure situated  in Pyongyang’s Kim II Sung Square and shaped like a drone, in which representatives form a new organization representing dictatorships holds court regularly on matters relating to the safety and security of the planet—funded in part by oligarchs like potash billionaire Dimitry Rybolovlev who turned the Russian village of Berezniki into a sinkhole and whose daughter Ekaterina purchased Sandy Weill's 15 CPW penthouse for a record breaking $88 million dollars.

Read "The Final Solution: Two Dark Horses" by Francis Levy, HuffPost

and listen to "Juicy"by Notorious B.I.G.