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Putin is surrounded by people who can't say no. I'm not sure how in touch with reality he his.

• scrollaway 5y ago
  Is he, though? Or is that a meme? I know it’s easy to see Putin’s entourage as a cartoon villain lair where saying no to anything will get you shot and replaced, but Putin, evil as he is, is really good at what he does and I don’t think it’s possible to be that good without being surrounded by some amount of other really intelligent people. In general I don’t think it follows that he could still be in power if he weren’t in touch with reality.
  • imartin2k 5y ago
    Also, he speaks German very well (he even talked German during parts of the 3 hr meeting with Germany’s chancellor last week), which means he has easy access to different viewpoints if he’d choose to read German media. Now I have no idea if he does or if this really is an argument against him being out of touch with reality. But it could be.
• MichaelMoser123 5y ago
  I have been following the show for a while, here is an interview with retired Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov in Russian. You can read about him in wikipedia [2]. Based on this assessment: i think that Putin might get a very similar professional assessment from his general staff. I mean similar in substance, but certainly not in form. (my grandparent comment was: 'I don't think that he will invade; Putin is a lot of things, but he knows some history and he is not a suicidal idiot. I think it's all for show') [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXOcuzQjzdo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXOcuzQjzdo [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Ivashov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Ivashov