An Inconvenient and Unwelcome Truth: ‘No One Can Move the Popular Leader of a Nuclear Power Except the Man Himself,’ ‘Nezavisimaya Gazeta’ Says

            Staunton, Oct. 23 – Almost everything in Russia has changed since February 24 when Moscow began its expanded invasion of Ukraine, but one thing has not, the editors of Nezavisimaya gazeta say, and that is Putin’s confidence that he is doing everything right and the overwhelming support he has from the population in that regard.

            That is an inconvenient and unwelcome truth, the paper says, but one that must be acknowledged because as of now, “Putin cannot be moved either from above, from below or from the outside. Only he can move himself” because “that is the reality of a popular authoritarian leader of a nuclear power” (ng.ru/editorial/2022-10-23/2_8572_red.html).

            And that is something everyone must reckon with, Nezavisimaya Gazeta says. Otherwise analysts and others will find themselves making predictions ever more at odds with reality and will not be able to understand “what is happening, why it is happening and how long all this will last.”

            With all the things changing around him over the last eight months, Putin has remained constant: “he hasn’t lost his spirit and conviction that he is doing everything right and that he has no reason for regret … And the same is true with the majority of the Russian people who are grateful to Putin for protecting the Russians.”

            “After all,” the paper continues, they recognize that Putin alone has not only talked about defending Russians but acted to do so, and that narrative remains unshaken to this day. As long as that is the case, Putin alone can decide what to do as long as he is in power. No one else is in a position to make him change course.