re: #218 Prof. Backpfeifengesicht, PhD

I think Westerners outside the Russian political context often have this temptation to see Russia as they show it “in films”. Putin is a comic book villain, offing his enemies left and right, no matter whether it benefits him at all. As a liberal who’s been against Putin since at least 2001 (when he destroyed the NTV channel), I have a deep-seated hatred for him, which has only intensified in recent years. Still, as a Russian, who has been in this “context” for years (before leaving recently), I see Putin as more nuanced than a Bond villain. There’s a cynical logic to what he does and does not do. It’s easy for an outsider to say, “Oh, look at this list of murdered journalists, obviously Putin did it”. But that’s not how it works.

How it works is like how it worked for Henry the 8th. He wonders aloud to the crowd “who will rid me of this troublesome priest”, and behold, by and by the priest is off the stage.

In Putin’s Russia, he needn’t even go that far. Silence is consent. If the government never actually hunts down and executes or throws in the dungeon the killer or killers, then they know they have the green light.