Few Russians are Prepared to Call Putin a Criminal but Most are Now Ready to Label Him Incompetent, Gallyamov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 4 – What has been happening on the front lines in Ukraine and across Russia itself has not led many Russians to call Putin criminal – for the present, that is simply “too much,” Abbas Gallyamov says; but it has led a majority of them to conclude that he is incompetent and that in itself is eroding his support.

            According to the former Putin speechwriter and now Putin critic, that is because “Putin ever more strongly recalls a religious fanatic: his struggle with the West looks ever more like a real crusade; and fanaticism from the point of view of the public is the opposite of competence” (t.me/abbasgallyamovpolitics/11066 reposted at echofm.online/opinions/putin-vsyo-silnee-napominaet-religioznogo-fanatika).

            For most Russians as for most other people, Gallyamov continues, “a competent man thinks soberly and dispassionately; a fanatic however is not capable of either. And the latter, even if he doesn’t shout with bulging eyes like Hitler, still harbors a fixation which prevents him from viewing things in an adequate way.”

            Russians can now see that in Putin and it is why they are expressing less and less confidence in him. A recognition of incompetence by elites and masses can even be the start of his fall, something that has been true in the case of other leaders who have demonstrated their incompetence as well.

            Gallyamov sums up the situation by referring to the classic Soviet film about Stirlitz, the Russian spy in Nazi Germany, who was once told by “a wide Nazi general” that “fanatics can win at first, but they will never achieve a victory because they will get tired of themselves” and thus act in ways that will preclude such an outcome.