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Vladimir Putin has become increasingly isolated in recent years, according to a Russian journalist.
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In an op-ed for The New York Times, journalist Mikhail Zygar said Putin believes he can only “save Russia”.
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Zygar said Putin and his aides are “obsessed” with the past and the idea of avenging the “humiliations” faced by Russia in the 1990s.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has become so isolated during the pandemic that he has “completely lost interest in the present” and is “obsessed” with the past, according to an essay by a Russian journalist in The New York Times.
Mikhail Zygar is the former editor-in-chief of the independent Russian TV news channel Dozhd and the author of “All The Kremlin’s Men”, a book about Putin’s inner circle.
In an op-ed for The New York Times, Zygar wrote that his sources close to the Russian president said Putin is “annoyed” by contemporary issues such as the economy, social issues and the coronavirus pandemic, and instead he and his aides are “obsessed” in the past.” Zygar says it was this obsession with the past that led Putin to invade Ukraine and start a war.
“In his mind, Mr. Putin is in a unique historical situation where he can finally recover from the previous years of humiliation,” Zygar wrote. “The only Western leader who took Mr Putin seriously was the previous Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel. Now she is gone and it is time for Russia to avenge the humiliations of the 1990s.”
According to Zygar, Putin’s aides have long tried to get the message across that he is the “only person who can save Russia” and he now believes so strongly that he doesn’t even trust those around him.
Zygar said Putin has met friends and advisers for “drinks and barbecues” in the past, but Putin is now cut off from most of his entourage. Due to the president’s strict COVID-19 protocol, some of Putin’s closest associates have to go into quarantine for two or three weeks out of the month to meet with him, Zygar said.
Putin took extreme measures to isolate himself during the COVID-19 pandemic – his palace in Novo-Ogaryovo was equipped with a special disinfection tunnel in June 2020 that all visitors had to go through to visit him and news reports in September 2020 suggested the Russian leader lived in a “virus-free bubble” created by his security forces.
“His seclusion and inaccessibility, his deep belief that Russian rule over Ukraine must be restored and his decision to surround himself with ideologues and sycophants have all contributed to Europe’s most dangerous moment since World War II,” Zygar wrote. .
Read the original article on Business Insider
