Putin and the Presidents: Interview with Timothy Snyder.

One: Americans don't think too often about Russia (unless they have to); Russians think about America all the time.
Two: One of the big faults with American democracy is that we thought that capitalism and privatizing everything would lead to a better country. If that were so, Russia would be a great country since it privatized everything.

are a sickening echo of TFG's whole premise about 2020, about how he could be defeated only if it was rigged (Putin's view) and that votes could be "found" for him, and most of the rest of the circus. If TFG weren't so abysmally stupid, he'd have been a great Russian agent. He and _Putin seem to be birds of a feather in their outlook, ther education, and their ability to think things through. The parallels are astonishing, no wonder Putin was willing to rig him in. Putin just failed to consider that our system is elastic enough to pitch a bad president out of office 4 years later.

It's hard to believe, if Snyder is correct, that the US/American security/intelligence/political world doesn't understand the Russian POV (at least as demonstrated by Putin and past USSR dictators.)

Or maybe we do and chose to play along with this game for our own reasons.

when he got the Duma to pass a set of laws keeping him in power even if some other sap got elected to the presidency. I think it was a hedge against Navalny before he had Navalny thrown into prison.

Elections are kind of irrelevant, Putin can't really lose, whichever way it goes and we know how it will go.

To think that not only Trump but Putin and the entire Kremlin were beside themselves with delight that day as they watched the violent attack on Congress unfold. Can you imagine the celebrating at the Kremlin that day???

And to think how many Republican voters to this day believe that January 6 was a glorious event carried out by true American patriots. They have no idea that they are brainwashed patsies carrying out the wishes of the world's wealthiest, in general, and Putin, in particular. Trump is a tool himself, in every sense of the word, but his ego makes him think that he is one of the masters controlling the universe, when in fact, he's Putin's puppet.