Putinism: The Ideology

This essay has become a bit outdated in the past two months for obvious reasons. Now everybody in the west says the same as Applebaum did in 2013. But for many this wasn't as obvious before.

The conclusion seems a bit outdated since Putin is in Russia seemingly (emphasis on seemingly) more powerful now than ever but in my very humble non-expert opinion he invaded Ukraine because he was losing the power and indeed was terrified that “western ideas” will take his allies and then topple his regime.

However the sanctions helped him to solidify his power and in combination with the insane amount of propaganda from Russian media made most of the Russian people come to his side. It's madness of crowds not dissimilar to 1930's Europe.