Putin won't like this. Good.

[EYESORE 9001]

4. Brilliant!

Your comment about kidnapping a mayor got me thinking: the Russian paradigm of power distribution favors the strongman. Military operations are by necessity fairly centralized in command and control, but the Russian military concentrates power in the generals to an even greater degree. Naturally, they assume everything else functions that way, so they’d envision a clueless lumpen proletariat standing around awaiting orders.

I believe the ‘Russian system’ as it exists is rushing headlong toward eradication. They need to rejoin the community of nations, but I believe those in power don’t have the wherewithal to move forward. Unless it comes from the Russian people, progress won’t happen.

The best scenario IMO is for Putin to be toppled or he fucking croaks. The oligarchs and anyone else wielding power in Russia will probably look for another strongman; hell, they chose pootin because they wanted someone most closely resembling Pinochet - a murderous bastard who had no problem killing however many citizens it took to put down rebellion or anything that smelled like it. He fucked around with Ukraine and by extension NATO, and now finding out that his murderous ways are not good for business. The oligarchs won’t tolerate that much longer.

Anyway…I got sidetracked. Gonna tie ‘er up with my hope that the Russian people can work together and take advantage of any disruption in the command and control network by grabbing a good fistful of democracy for themselves. Stepping into the 21st century would be great too. Realizing that you can’t build an economy on natural resources, armaments, and internet trollery, would be a wonderful enlightment for prole and oligarch alike.