Report: Fearing Poisoning, Vladimir Putin Replaces 1,000 of His Personal Staff

[wnylib]

90. Dictators are always paranoid. It comes

with the territory. Absolute rule creates many enemies. Dictators cannot share power, or tolerate alternative views, so they must eliminate all perceived threats to their absolute authority.

This means that they must be continually on the lookout for threats and dissenters.

Stalin purged thousands, or millions, to consolidate and preserve his power. Hitler purged his militia (the SA) once he no longer needed them and saw them as a threat.

Being a dictator is to play a perpetual game of "king of the mountain" with a constant stream of challengers. It's the nature of the business, just like being a mob boss.

EDIT TO ADD: The beauty of democracy is that it creates a system that acknowledges the desire to challenge power and allows for the peaceful challengers to "battle" each other verbally, not for control, but for enough followers to chiose them in an election. And democracy limits the amount of time a leader can serve in the top office.