It’s the consensus of what I’ve read and heard from experts in various subject areas who are following this, including Russians.
Several others here have addressed this. If you choose not to start an analysis of the poison’s provenance with Occam’s Razor that doesn’t mean that others won’t, and do so quite convincingly.
Not if they’re major players who want to hold onto power, they don’t. An autocrat and his cronies need enemies, which for this regime means publically posturing against the West even as one stashes one’s assets abroad for one’s retirement or family members. If those in the West had the guts, as Bill Browder and others have suggested, to actually freeze or strip the assets of Putin and his cronies then their smirks would disappear very quickly. Fortunately for them, they also know that the Tories and GOP and other Western establishment conservatives, for all their diplomatic rhetoric, wouldn’t put harsher and broader Magnitsky Acts into place because it would set a bad precedent in regard to their own tax-dodging and jet-setting plutocrat donors.
Of course the Soviet Union is gone. I would never claim that Putin is as heavy-handed in his authoritarianism as his old bosses – his approach is much more interesting, truly adapted for the information age. Calling everyone who questions Russia in 2018 a Cold Warrior or a McCarthyite is a lame and laughable tactic to the BB audience, and you’re better than that. Do yourself a favour and leave that one to the clowns at the I.R.A.
Power would be tenuous for anyone in charge because as you note the economy there is particularly unhealthy by G20 standards. That’s why he has to pull stunts like this. In order to hold onto power (something he obviously wants and uses) and also his money he has to appear to be a tough-guy macho nationalist who’ll do anything for Russia to retain the support he has: Russia’s counterpart to America’s Know-Nothing 30%. As anywhere else, keeping those rubes reasonably content and feeling superior to Others are all an authoritarian really needs to gain power (and, in countries without a liberal-democratic tradition, keep it), and Putin is very good at doing that.
So: quote Dugin’s vision; talk about “Russian greatness”; send totally-on-vacation troops into Ukraine; cry about the bad ol’ West trying to keep Russia down; wink and laugh when Russia “puts one over” on the Americans or Brits; do a little Jew-baiting or Islam-bashing or pandering to anti-intellectualism; throw a military parade; take off your shirt, etc. and they’re easy enough to gull.
He also understands that he needs to play a constant game of carrot-and-stick with the oligarchs and potential rivals to stay in power, something he also excels at. He differs from them in the respect that he likes the trappings of being a head of state at least as much as if not more than he likes enjoying spending his ill-gotten gains abroad, and regularly uses the coercive power of the state when he decides to giveth or taketh away and set examples. That’s where occasionally ordering that a prominent “traitor” be killed comes in (it also plays well with the nationalist rubes).
It’s just lazy to argue that I and others here only get my information from the American military-industrial complex and its shills in the MSM (of which I highly doubt The Atlantic – note the use of the preposition — is one). I have friends in Russia, have studied the country’s fascinating history and culture, and like you have been there. In the area of current affairs and politics I also follow Russians like Gessen, Kasparov, the women of Pussy Riot (to give examples familiar to the West) and Westerners who’ve lived in, studied and done business in Russia. Which brings up…
I also read The Exile before (at least in their telling) they got kicked out of Russia by the authorities – guess who’d taken charge by then. Taibbi and Ames always knew and still know what Putin is, but they’re just cynical and jaded about the corruption and authoritarianism there (and everywhere, but they’re both very clear that they think the Russian versions are on performance-enhancing drugs).
Those two made the mistake that some expat businessmen and some of the Russian-born smart young things do: they publically questioned and mocked the racketeers in power, and when one does that (or tries to challenge them by getting into the game) the authorities stop allowing you to party and live la vie Boheme.
Keep your head down and don’t get too ambitious and, from what Russians I know tell me, if you’re educated and make decent money and live in a big city you can disrespect the regime and all that it publically preaches and privately practises without consequence. Follow what is “understood” and you’ll be left alone. But when your penchant for chaotic merry-making brings you to a nut like Limonov who urges you to be more outspoken, though, follow his advice and say goodbye to your job or your business or your public reputation (which are the best-case outcomes).
If you’re depending on RT to formulate your alternate theories then you might want to consider that you’re the one being duped by a state propaganda organ, one that exists in large part to spread disinformation and FUD.
As for Peskov, I have no sympathy for anyone who gets bit after voluntarily jumping into a snakepit.
Nope. You pass a casual Turing Test, which is why I’ve never said you’re a bot (feel free to check my comment history). I’ve also stated here and elsewhere that you’re not one of the losers who posts comments for the trolley factories. And I’m sure that you know what a nation-state is, and thus don’t need to resort to feigned ignorance when you’re trying to pretend Russia is innocent of this. I’m not sure what your game or motivations are, but you’re more entertaining than them (even if the BB “refs” do keep a weather eye on your “subtle” kicks).
We really could use some spring soon. If you’re in California I assume you’re somewhat better off.