One thing that comes to mind about Ceausescu, when I visited his 'palace' (the people's house) was how many escape routes and hidden exits there were (including

One thing that comes to mind about Ceausescu, when I visited his 'palace' (the people's house) was how many escape routes and hidden exits there were (including apparently a network of tunnels under the city) For a man who is said to have thought the people deeply loved him, he sure was paranoid. Or maybe he actually knew how much people hated him and he was just fooling himself? But Putin is nowhere as unpopular as Ceausescu was. His approval ratings that I've seen are no different from those of Western leaders. A lot of people there seem to believe Ukraine is full of Nazis. Nobody is going to storm his palace any time soon and I don't think the sanctions will help. They'll just reinforce his "the West is out to get us" narrative. Don't forget they don't have anything reminiscent of a free press anymore.