Putin and the Exhile
Putin’s current tactics for social control are cunning and effective. His popularity rating––a vexed statistic in an authoritarian country––is at eighty per cent. “For less sophisticated people, he relies on brainwashing,” Guriev said. “For more sophisticated but less honest people, he needs to bribe them. For honest, sophisticated people, he uses repression.”
.. he noted that there were limits to how long Putin could sustain his diversion, much less his power. “When people see that Putin can’t deliver, there will be trouble,” he said, adding that he did not know how bad things would get before they begin to change, but, for his part, he was counting on another turn. Not soon, necessarily, but one day. Guriev had not sold his apartment in Moscow. “We’re only renting here,” he said. “I plan on going home.”