Putin Regime has Lost Sense of Shame that had Sometimes Constrained It, Kolesnikov Says

 Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 3 – Since Putin launched his expanded war against Ukraine last February, his regime has lost the sense of shame that had caused them to try to cover up what they are doing with fine words; and the removal of this last constraint means that the future in Russia under the current ruler is bleak indeed, the New Times’ Andrey Kolesnikov says.

            This loss of a sense of shame, he continues, has gone “hand in hand with the breaking of ties with the outside world, including those which kept the state within a civilized framework. For example, it withdrew from the Group of States against Corruption, effectively admitting that corruption is at the base of the Putin regime” (newtimes.ru/articles/detail/233469).

            Now that Putin and his minions no longer feel compelled either to lie about what they have done or to use euphemisms to describe their actions, the odds are good that they will feel increasingly free to violate the norms that until recently had filled them with a sense of shame regarding their criminal actions.

            The Kremlin leader, of course, has been moving in this direction over the entire course of his more than two decades in power, Kolesnikov concedes; but over the course of the last year, he has become more open and that means more pitiless” in his actions, a trend that suggests the worst is yet to come for Russians, Ukrainians and everyone with whom Putin deals.