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| President Putin's Character And Russian Politics |
International Military - Many writings talk about Russia from a simplistic point of view, they use the idea, “to understand autocracy, you need to understand autocrats”. Autocrats themselves are important to understand because of their large share in running a political wheel, the way a leader takes to move. Some say "No. Putin, No. Russia”, while observers in the West use a different term, “Know Putin, Know Russia”.
The concept of thought is summarized into what is known as Putinology, finding out the basis of the personality and background of the 69-year-old man's obsession. The man also served as leader of a country that commands a population of 146 million people spread across 11 time zones.
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To be able to run the government, Putin must be able to motivate corrupt bureaucracies, keep away elite challengers, and prevent highly educated urban people with declining standards of living from taking to the streets.
Without realizing it, Vladimir Putin's personality became a unique characteristic of the Russian state itself. A CIA Director named William Burns who was also the US Ambassador to Russia for the 2005-2008 term.
Burns himself is known as the single icon who knows Putin better than anyone else. "Putin is the epitome of a combination of typical Russian qualities: arrogant, cranky, sad and dangerous," Burns quoted in Politico as saying.
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Much popular writing assumes that Putin was motivated by a set of beliefs over time. Quoted from The Daily Beast, which describes some of the characters of the Russian President. Some say that Putin became a gambler after Russia annexed Crimea, others say he became a more cautious person.
Seen from his decision to build a massive reserve fund from the oil boom in the early 2000s. Some even claim that Putin actually has a long-term plan to weaken international institutions that are considered to be detrimental to Russia.
To some, Vladimir Putin is simply an opportunist responding to a symptom, such as when he brokered a deal to phase out chemical weapons in Syria when then-President Barack Obama balked at using force in 2013.
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There are also those who argue that like an autocrat, Putin is only looking for massive material gains. Others saw Putin as a Russian nationalist because of his speeches that often quoted controversial philosophers such as Ivan Il'in and Aleksandr Dugin.
A US historian named Timothy Snyder described Putin's personality as saying that the Russian President was indoctrinated by the thinking of Ivan Il'in. The idea was to emphasize the uniqueness of Russian civilization and cultural excellence, and to reject liberalism and communism in favor of Mussolini-style autocracy and fascism.
But, Timothy Snyder's claim can be debunked because Putin is known as a person who reads a lot of books about other Russian thinkers. This reference to Ivan Il'in is believed to be merely a cultural statement and does not touch Russian politics, but the idea of Il'in as Putin's intellectual teacher persists.
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The question arises, is this form of rejection of the West by Putin a political movement or is it a firmly held belief? Looking at history, the most logical answer is the former.
While there is no precise evidence there, seeing Putin's public speeches shows that he wants to be seen for what he is. The lack of evidence leaves ample room for observers to delve deeper into Putinology and assess how he runs Russian politics.