I don’t think anyone in the USSR after Stalin had the same unchecked power as Putin has today, and I do think that the people in power actually cared somewhat

I don’t think anyone in the USSR after Stalin had the same unchecked power as Putin has today, and I do think that the people in power actually cared somewhat about the Soviet Union (not necessarily about its people). There’s hard to tell if there’s any checks at all around Putin, and he only seem to care about himself. And if he thinks he’s going down it wouldn’t surprise me if he tries to take the world with him. Of course this is exactly what he wants us to fear. In the end we have no idea what actually is happening in his mind.