Every Additional Year of Putin Stability ‘a Lost Decade’ for Russia, Forbidden Opinion Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 3 – Vladimir Putin and his entourage repeatedly that his remaining power and continuing the same policies “stabilizes Russia,” The Forbidden Opinion telegram channel says; but the real tragedy is that they are not just saying that for propaganda purposes but in fact really believe it.

            He and they believe that “the destruction of the opposition, ‘the zeroing out’ of the Constitution, the rapidly declining standard of living and the dying off of the population are nothing other than ‘a stable situation,” it continues (t.me/TheForbiddenOpinion/6010 reposted at rusmonitor.com/kazhdyj-posleduyushhij-god-putinskoj-stabilnosti-eto-poteryannoe-desyatiletie.html).

            What this means, the channel says, is that the powers that be consider that they are fully justified in their approach to rule and that they are “ready to tighten the screws still further” rather than seek a way out of the many impasses the Russian people now face given past and present Kremlin policies.

            “The powers that be already are physically incapable of distinguishing the real position in the country” from what they imagine. “They exist in a drugged schizophrenic world,” and the only way out is their departure from the scene. “Sooner or later that will happen, but nothing much will until Putin and company leave this life.

            But what is especially tragic, The Forbidden Opinion channel says, is that every additional year Russia has to live under rulers who believe this nonsense will cost the country at least a decade to recover, a reality that Russians have not yet fully recognized.