Putin builds walls round Kremlin

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Financial Times:

Vladimir Putin won re-election this week largely by campaigning on a few themes: fear, paranoia, and an obsession with loyalty and betrayal, according to his critics.

And to hear those close to Mr Putin tell it, this is a faithful reflection of the former KGB colonel’s own mind as he heads into a third term as president of the world’s second largest nuclear power.

In numerous speeches, Mr Putin alluded to the presence of foreign plots against his rule and internal enemies of Russia’s sovereignty, accusing protesters of responding to “signals” from Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, and being part of a foreign-inspired effort to “show us that they can rock the boat”.

While this may have been scripted for public consumption, analysts say that the behind-the-scenes Putin is very much like the one he projects in public, his behaviour symptomatic of the same outlook he evokes in political speeches.

In the wake of the biggest challenge of his career – demonstrations that broke out following flawed parliamentary elections in December – Mr Putin has grown distrustful of advisers and increasingly self-reliant.

“His entire campaign was based on the theme of ‘Putin is encircled by enemies’,” said Gleb Pavlovsky, who was fired as a political consultant by the Kremlin last year.

“The first part of the campaign Putin ran as a peacekeeper, as a guarantor of social stability. But by the end it was a campaign of fear ... This was, to some extent, a function of his own psychology.”

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Most dictators tend to be paranoid by nature...