The problem for Putin is that this level of corruption is unsustainable. Russia presents itself as a democracy to its people. And those people are the ones deprived of health care, education, paved roads, and a decent standard of living so that senior officials in the Putin regime can enjoy yachts, private jets, and villas in the South of France. No matter what Russian propagandists peddle, eventually people will get angry. Putin looked around and what he saw frightened him. In Kazakhstan, another corrupt dictator, Nursultan Nazarbayev, was ousted earlier this year in January. In Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko was almost ousted following the fraudulent 2019 election. It was only because of Putin’s intervention that Lukashenko is still in power.
So Putin dug into the dictator’s playbook and started a war. Now, instead of the Russian people being mad at him, they can be mad at “Nazified” Ukrainians, or the U.S., or NATO.
So far, he seems to be succeeding with his approval ratings in Russia around 83 percent.
It is now plain that Putin is evil. This is not breathless hyperbole. It is fact. He has no regard for human life, and only lusts over power and money. In his calculus, money is power, and vice versa.
Amazingly, Putin himself has now been sanctioned by the West. But finding the whereabouts of his money is no easy task. I’ve spent the last 14 years trying to understand the dark money flowing out of Russia. Once we found it, there was a huge price to pay.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/putin-mon...090059892.html