Why vladimir putin is a dictator

Undoubtedly, he learned his lesson from the bitter experiences of Alexander Lukashenko. That is why, already back in December , the Russian parliament adopted a series of amendments to the law that further restricted the remnants of freedom in Russia and thus facilitated state repression against its citizens.

According to Putin, the main threat to his power is no longer external, but domestic. This shift began about a year ago, with the launching of a process of constitutional amendments allowing the president to remain in the Kremlin de facto indefinitely. At the beginning of the year, the authorities continued to implement strict internal policy and made another step towards a typical authoritarian regime.

Alexei Navalny had been imprisoned, and another criminal case against him was initiated. New restrictions on public protests were also adopted, while blocking the streets was outlawed.

Moreover, the authorities have greater freedom to block websites if they decide that they are censoring content from Russian state media.

The latter is aimed at punishing social media companies such as Facebook or YouTube. Russia is becoming increasingly authoritarian. In short, the FSB is responsible for fighting off opposition; the government has to deal with the economy, while the governors have to fight against the pandemic.

The president himself is gradually becoming a symbol. He is a guarantor of the status quo but has no time for mundane issues because he focuses on global affairs. In the past year, Putin distanced himself from the current political reality and dealt with issues of the Russian citizens.

He remains isolated in a bunker not exactly known where and meets face-to-face only with his most trusted associates. This means that he has given more tasks to his people than ever before.

However, this also means that he has less power. Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny center takes part in a memorial march for Boris Nemtsov marking the fifth anniversary of his assassination. Moscow, Russia, February 29, Nemtsov was a liberal politician and prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was assassinated on 27 February in Moscow.

The Kremlin probably has not been so focused on domestic issues since The future of the regime depends on surviving the coronavirus pandemic and winning the parliamentary election. If the regime survives , Putin has a fair chance to make it at least to the end of his current term, assuming that his health permits him to do so. There are growing indications that the succession operation may be repeated.

The current regime is not able to offer anything to the Russian people. On the contrary, the whole process turned out to be unfavorable for him. Why is so important? Because then the Russian legislative elections are to be held. It would be hard to rig the elections because Putin and his party — United Russia — are losing trust and support. The elder Putin daughter, Maria, is also an academic, specialising in endocrinology.

Reuters found that several other powerful figures close to Mr Putin - often ex-KGB - also have successful children in lucrative management jobs. He is passionate about ice hockey, like judo - and state TV has shown his skills on the ice. Mr Putin's brand of patriotism dominates Russia's media, skewing coverage in his favour, so the full extent of opposition is hard to gauge. Even in , as prime minister under President Dmitry Medvedev, he was clearly holding the levers of power.

In his first two terms as president, Mr Putin was buoyed by healthy income from oil and gas - Russia's main exports.

Living standards for most Russians improved. But the price, in the opinion of many, was the erosion of Russia's fledgling democracy. Since the global financial crisis Mr Putin has struggled with an anaemic economy, hit by recession and more recently a plunge in the price of oil. Russia lost many foreign investors and billions of dollars in capital flight. Mr Putin's rule has been marked by conservative Russian nationalism. It has strong echoes of tsarist absolutism, encouraged by the Orthodox Church.

The Church supported a ban on groups spreading gay "propaganda" among teenagers. Soon after becoming president Mr Putin set about marginalising liberals, often replacing them with more hardline allies or neutrals seen as little more than yes-men.

Yeltsin favourites such as the oligarchs Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky ended up as fugitives living in exile abroad. International concern about human rights in Russia grew with the jailing of oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once one of the world's richest billionaires, and of anti-Putin activists from the punk group Pussy Riot.

Agents of the Russian state were accused of murdering him. Will Putin rule Russia forever? Russia-Turkey tension: How Putin acts in a crisis. Syria poses challenges for Putin. Russia's leaders in workout session. Patriotic fervour on the rise in Russia. Putin reveals secret Crimea plot. The fates of Putin's enemies. Russian presidency. Image source, Getty Images. President Putin sometimes humiliates senior officials on state TV.

Ukraine tensions. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A look at his 20 years in power. He could simply opt to step away from the helm when his current term expires in This will require an improbable change of direction, but it cannot be ruled out. But whether or not Putin leaves office of his own volition, he will leave in his wake an institutional weakness that inevitably results from treating the constitution as a work in progress.

A stable democracy is, after all, first and foremost a matter of developing good political habits. The longer the habit holds, the easier it is to sustain.

But every reset triggers a return to the starting line and perhaps another chance at transitioning to true democracy. Sergey Radchenko is a professor of international politics and director of research at the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University. Twitter: DrRadchenko. Baurzhan Rakhmetov is a Ph. Shusha was the key to the recent war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Now Baku wants to turn the fabled fortress town into a resort.

Argument An expert's point of view on a current event. By Sergey Radchenko and Baurzhan Rakhmetov. August 6, , AM. Putin Is Using the Pandemic to Consolidate Power Public health is a convenient pretext for extending authoritarian controls. Dispatch Josh Nadeau. In typical Putin style, the particulars were left vague, to be decided later. Putin himself offered cryptic, contradictory hints about his intentions—too much detail would allow his rivals and foes, whether inside the palace walls or out on the streets, to prepare for whatever he had in store.

In the span of a few hours, the next sixteen years of Russian political life appeared to lock into place. Putin would still hover over everything, but in a different arrangement, which might even mean that some new faces and institutions could appear on the scene.

A referendum on proposed constitutional amendments is scheduled for April 22nd. The Kremlin formed a stage-managed commission to consider draft amendments, even as everyone knew that the final text would be written by a small circle of Putin advisers walled off from the public. In the meantime, ministers were fired; new ones filled their places. One of the more outlandish scenarios that circulated held that Russia and Belarus would merge to form a new state, which Putin would then lead.