The Evolution of Putin: How Russia's Leader Became an Autocrat - TLDR News

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Having been in power for over 20 years now, the the mild-mannered bureaucratic Putin of the early 2000s is almost unrecognisable to the furious nationalist of today. In this video, we trace the evolution of Putin's politics and explain how we got here.
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1 - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Ru...
2 - datatopics.worldbank.org/world...
3 - data.worldbank.org/indicator/...
4 - brill.com/view/journals/rupo/...
5 - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxatio...
6 - tradingeconomics.com/russia/g...
7 - datatopics.worldbank.org/world...
8 - data.worldbank.org/indicator/...
9 - en.kremlin.ru/events/president...
10 - www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/tableau_...
11 - brill.com/view/journals/rupo/...
12 - www.trtworld.com/magazine/rus...
13 - is.muni.cz/th/xlghl/DP_Fillin...
14 - yaledailynews.com/blog/2005/1...
15 - www.unz.com/akarlin/why-i-vot...
16 - www.unz.com/akarlin/russias-n...
17 - www.unz.com/akarlin/antiracis...
18 - www.unz.com/akarlin/russias-n...

[@alvarohernani6645]

This could be a great idea for a series about some leaders that have been in power for quite some time or have changed a lot

[@edsiles4297]

Yeah, for example, Donald Trump changed party affiliation several times over the past 40 years (before finally settling for GOP), although I think he was mostly opportunistic.

[@paul1979uk2000]

@@edsiles4297 Clearly opportunistic, he went where the wind was going and said what he thinks the people wanted to hear, basically anything to get into power. Boris Johnson is the same, swinging from being pro to Eurosceptic on the EU depending on the mood of the British people, basically, he more or less said what he thinks the Brexiteers wanted to hear to get into power and getting into power was his real agenda, I doubt he cared about Brexit one way or the other but he saw an opening to power and took it, history has shown many times are leaders do this.

[@SwordQuake2]

Putin hasn't changed at all.

[@youwouldntclickalinkonyout6236]

Like biden on how often he flips flops

[@Homer-OJ-Simpson]

@@youwouldntclickalinkonyout6236 trump flip flops in the same sentence- sometimes 3 times!

[@davecullins1606]

As one of my Russian friends once said: "If Putin had just stayed away after 2008, he would've been remembered as a hero." Edit: Apparently the prime minister was actually the guy who came up with all the good economic ideas, and Putin just enacted them. For some reason, the two comments that pointed this out are now gone.

[@miniaturejayhawk8702]

If hitler had died in 1939 then he also would have been remembered as a hero. You either die as a hero or live long enough to become the villain.

[@architech02]

@UCXi8t7NWmLH1WdMmllD480Q nah he would've been known as the one who sent the German economy to the dark ages - His rearmament program was unsustainable the only reason It didn't collapse earlier was due to the annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia

[@ashra8281]

Same with his best friend JK Rowling

[@Kirshach]

Well, that is true, even despite the analogy with Hitler in the comment above. Sure, it was not all rainbows and unicorns, but 2000-2008 were 100% much better years to live in than the 90s (please don't just tell me it's because of oil prices - that wouldn't matter in the 90s Russia)

[@grzegorzbrzeczyszykiewic3338]

@@architech02 no, he would still be remembered as a hero. all of his failing that were kept under covers would be unleashed as soon as any succesor tried to take his place, which would cause his succesor to be blamed for all wrongdoings.

[@kugul1683]

Interesting. One thing to remember though is that he invaded Crimea in 2014 and Abkhasia as well as South Ossetia way back in 2008.

[@nikitabeletskiy]

He wasn't a president in 2008

[@fabulouscat3911]

@@nikitabeletskiy let's not kid ourselves here...

[@bachelor3846]

We can’t be sure wether it was really Putin who invaded Georgia or Medvedev. If you remember, Putin was prime minister and was in Japan at negotiations the day the war started. We know some rumors about Putin’s phone call to Medvedev when Putin gave order to attack, but it’s not reliable information.

[@nikitabeletskiy]

@@fabulouscat3911 well, yeah)

[@fosterslover]

Also note the timing of each invasion when the world was distracted. 2008 was the dawn of the financial crisis and a US presidential transition year. 2014 was in the midst of the Eurozone debt crisis. 2022 was in the midst of the pandemic and a US withdrawal from the middle east. Thankfully he wasn't able to get away with it this time.

[@ioannisskardasis6887]

New decade, new Putin

[@drlukas4242]

I wonder what he will turn to in 2030.

[@gitaarlesamsterdam4561]

@@drlukas4242 giant death robot

[@Simon-ki8wq]

@@drlukas4242 Putin in prison, hopefully

[@chrislouis7913]

@@drlukas4242 a communist?

[@MazzaEliLi7406]

Nah, same old same old.

[@travelwell6049]

The fall of the Berlin wall is pretty significant to Putin’s life and what makes him tick.

[@baird5682]

They took down his wall

[@mayankbisht7691]

Yeah he even tells how he had to drive cabs along with his usual spy work.

[@arty5876]

In general, the most incomprehensible thing in this war is Putin's goals. Considering what price Russia is paying for the war in Ukraine, sanctions, etc., it becomes unclear - is it worth it? Putin is not crazy, is he? It seems to me that if we want to understand Russia's goals, we should still listen to what Putin said on February 24. Of course, he lied and exaggerated, but still the declaration of war speech contains the reasons for the war, albeit exaggerated in order to justify it. What if Putin is really right about something, or did he have no choice? Putin said that Ukraine wanted to join NATO. So, what if Ukraine, having joined NATO, and having received guarantees of independence from Western countries that have nuclear weapons, could use these guarantees to return Donbass, and possibly Crimea to its composition? And Putin, knowing this, decided to strike a screwing blow, to forestall the enemy. Judge for yourself - if Russia is hungry for expansion, then why was Georgia not completely captured in 2008? Why was peace concluded with Georgia after 5 days of fighting, although the defeat of the Russian army was not inflicted, but on the contrary - the Georgian army was defeated in Ossetia, and Russian troops on the fifth day of the war approached the outskirts of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, after which peace was concluded on the Georgian initiative. This means that expansion is not the goal of Russia. And if Putin wanted to seize Ukraine, he should have attacked in 2014 or 2015, when Ukraine simply did not have an army. And so it turns out that Putin gave Ukraine 8 years to prepare for war. This means that the decision to invade Ukraine was made spontaneously, and before that, in 2021, 2020, 2019 and other years, Putin did not plan an invasion of Ukraine. What could make Putin make a quick decision? Well, only my point of view is logical here, that Ukraine, using NATO's protection guarantees, wanted to seize Donbass, and that Putin simply had no choice whether to invade Ukraine or not, because if he had not invaded, Donbass would have been taken by Ukrainian troops, and Russia, risking a clash with NATO, would have been sitting on the sidelines. In general, it is worthwhile to understand in principle what has been happening for the last 8 years.

[@user-ru5vz7sm5z]

Can't agree with this "war on oligarchs" thing because coincidentally only those who criticized Putin were imprisoned or had their property taken away from them while others kept getting richer and/or gaining more power. Putin was also kinda nationalistic and autocratic since the very beginning of his presidency, just look at what he stated in his election program in 2000

[@qbek_san]

what he stated in 2000?

[@leekleek1]

What he say

[@trillionbones89]

it is more a subjugation of the oligarchy under his thumb than a war on aligarchy

[@user-ru5vz7sm5z]

@@qbek_san there's an article on wikipedia about his electoral campaign in 2000, you can take a look at it. Long story short, despite hiding it, he's already been trying to exploit Russia's "Weimar syndrome"

[@TylerSolvestri]

No different to what happened during Soviet times...

[@nestrior7733]

This really is just an overview. Granted, you did say that there were no solid borders for any of these eras, since Putin had some policies from all of them throughout. But that is doing the man a disservice. The public face might be drastically different, but this was a development that we could observe even in the 00s. So I want to write this comment to illustrate a few key points as I see them. There have been authoritarian undertones throughout. Especially the article about the Chechen War he started seems interesting in this regard. While it can easily be argued that Putin centralized power on the Kremlin in his Technocrat Era, one shouldn't forget that he did so while associating this power with himself specifically. Be it the aforementioned War that he started as a response to bombs that featured a member of the Duma mentioning one that hadn't happened yet or the massacre of hostages to establish that he does not negotiate with criminals. Even Putin's inner circle features a fair amount of oligarchs. The sort of people he "reigned in" when he gained power. Effectively, again, centralizing them around himself. Putin made it clear again and again that Russia's power and wealth are tied to him and only him. Even the lead-up to the 2008 war with Georgia saw ethno-nationalist undertones and . . . "peaceful russification," or "passportification," where citizens of the regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia were encouraged to get Russian passports against Georgia's wishes and would lay the groundwork for Russia's later claims. Abkhazia is at the Black Sea coast and even saw an ethnic cleansing of Georgians following a military conflict with separatists in the 90s. The cleansing cut the population of Abkhazia to less than half by 2003, a decrease of over 300 thousand. Friendly reminder that the separatists of both regions had been supported by the Russian military and there were contingents of peacekeepers, partly Russian as well, in both of them after these conflicts. That, I should mention, started over Georgia declaring independence and South Ossetia and Abkhazia not wanting to leave the young Russian Federation. They were made into autonomous Oblast and the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia was in control of a third of just that following the conflicts. At this point I should stress that I do not condone the handling of all of this by the Georgian governments in any of these events. I am giving a rough recount of them to draw parallels between them and the current conflict in Ukraine, be it in the 90s or now in the 00s with Putin. Because! once Putin became President, the relations between Russia and Georgia worsened. Even an alleged mobster was installed as de facto president of South Ossetia to subvert the region's peaceful reunification with Georgia in 2001. 2002 then started the "passportification" process. Things only got worse in 2004 when the then new president of Georgia made restoring both regions to Georgian control his priority. Another of President Saakashvili's priorities was making Georgia a member of NATO. I think I will stop here. The parallels should be clear enough by now.

[@philipthomey7884]

tldr

[@forgotten1s]

Wow i cant believe you said "this is an overview" when he said it was an overview. I also cant believe you decided to type a thesis

[@echarts3710]

The day Putin came to power is so iconic: 31 December 1999. Just one day before the millenium.

[@Steve_the_Radroach]

Technically the new millenium started on the 1st of January 2001

[@xAnonymousComedia]

​@@Steve_the_Radroach You're right, but just shut up anyway ok hahaha

[@baird5682]

He's a remnent of a previous era. His time is long overdue.

[@edsiles4297]

Actually one year and a day

[@trillionbones89]

@@Steve_the_Radroach "just one day before the millenium" was clearly spelled out, yet you thought you were wise to correct what was already correct.

[@yurareutskiy9368]

Thanks for the video! But I have to disagree with you on a couple of things. First of all, Putin in the early '00s did nothing but allowed his cabinet to implement economic reforms. When he realized the economy is not fragile anymore and the price of oil gives a lot of money to budget (the price started to grow since the period Putin came to power), he replaced people in his cabinet with someone who wouldn't be a threat to his presidency (mostly, with friends). Secondly, I wouldn't pay attention to what he said. Often, it's just a lie. He likes to say some right and liberal things, but it's just a play on audience. His actions don't agree with his words. And because he overtook all mass media in the first years of his presidency, he has never met a condemnation about his lies. Third, you mentioned his fight with oligarchs. In fact, he just took out all rich people with ambitions who didn't agree with Putin (btw the case against Khodorkovskiy was really absurd and raised many questions to the court). Later, Putin let his friends and relatives take the oligarch's businesses. And since then he doesn't allow anyone to large money who has doubts about Putin (usually, the government forces and the court just "rob" a business). So, I would say it's not three stages of Putin's transformation, but it's stages of his public image. It's much more accurate. He really cares about how he looks (that's why he did a lot of plastic surgery and tall people are never put next to him in a public).

[@seanchernov7178]

Agreed

[@Jonas_M_M]

Agree! Take corruption for instance, he didn't end it; just made it beneficial to the state, or rather himself. - Corruption changed from being decentralized and irregular to centralized and systemic.

[@makara2711]

You really don't know everything about his governance much less Russia. I know you're mad at Putin but please keep your stupid opinions to yourself; people who continuously say "Putin is a criminal, he's a killer, he's so corrupt, etc." without actually knowing a lot of the technicalities are losers.

[@MemoryMori]

So a Napoleon complex? xDD

[@krisz9490]

@@MemoryMori nah because Napoleon was based and great and cool.Putin is just a boring dictator

[@Jonas_M_M]

The most interesting question is: Did his personal opinions change or just his prospects of staying in power? - The second thesis could be explained as follows: First he got the state and economy on track to stay popular. Then he framed the skeptic west as hostile to rally the people. And after the ties between the west and Russia have gotten friendlier and tighter - especially economically -, he felt that he had to make enemies outside of Russia to unite the country.

[@philippetalbot7227]

I think your second thesis is more probable. He appears to me as a man who's looking for a cause to stay in power more than a man using power to further a cause.

[@bodigames]

NO. Putin asked to join nato and become a proud western nation. but dumb ignorant Nato Leaders refused and thats when Putin switched to being anti west and pro china. its all the NATO leaders fault. we could have had russia on our side against china and north korea but nato had to refuse putin.... fk them nato leaders who refused russia back then.

[@bachelor3846]

I think that this personal opinion changed. There are many interviews with Putin’s old friends and colleagues who knew him since 80-es. For example, with former Putin’s boss Anatoliy Sobchak. He described Putin as absolutely pro-Western person, person who was looking forward to joining European Union and ‘big European family’. There was no sign of any other Putin’s opinion until late 2000-es. And the main intonation of his ‘conservative period’ was disappointment in the West. Anyway, even though I don’t believe in the image of ‘hostile West’, I also can’t believe in good intends of Western people. 90-es taught us that Western politicians will use all our political concessions, which we can make to build good relations with the West, and won’t give anything back. You may call it just mistakes of Bush administration, but price we payed for this lesson in 90-es and 2000-es was too high to ignore it. We should trade with the West but nothing more.

[@SpaceMonkeyBoi]

@@bachelor3846 politicians will be politicians. They have their own nightmare waiting for them after death. I think it's a shame that they cause so much unnecessary hatred. Especially between the US and Russia. We defeated Hitler together, we should have been brothers.

[@SwissSareth]

Yeah, we had a chance to integrate Russia into Europe, but the US fucked it up because they couldn't get out of their cold war mentality. That's by no means a justification, of course, but it does make the shift understandable.

[@paul1979uk2000]

To be fair, it's a two-way thing, yes the US royally messed up under the Bush Administration which is likely a big part of why Putin thinks like he does, but Russia would have to want to change a lot if it really wanted to be western. The irony is, if Russia did become western and with the natural resources it's got, it would be a lot richer than it is today, After all, Russia isn't really doing any better than the eastern EU members which are still developing, Russia has a lot more natural resources compared to them and to make it worse for Russia, a lot of the wealth is concentrated in Moscow and St Petersburg. So yeah Russia isn't doing that well and could have been a lot richer with the right leadership and policies in place, so on the surface Putin did well for Russia, but in reality, he's not done that great for Russia considering its natural resources and you only have to look at the eastern European countries that joined the EU to see that.

[@burningphoenix6679]

No. Russia was extremely corrupt. It needed to fix that before joining the rest of Europe. Instead they became an autocracy and committed atrocities across the world in Chechnya, Africa, Syria, and Georgia. Russia made the choice not to integrate. Nobody else.

[@marcelthevirginian1656]

Amen. While the ultimate blame for the Ukraine war falls on Putin's shoulders, the war was not inevitable. America, in its position as the sole super power was majorly arrogant. We squandered a lot of chances to improve our relation with Russia. (And have driven them into China's arms.) As an American, I would much rather have a different past 30 years, where instead of growing increasingly hostile with Russia, we developed friendly relationships.

[@nalm7985]

Completely missed one the main points of why Russia was growing so much, because of extremely expensive oil, that Putin basically had control over.

[@nalm7985]

@Slightlylesswrong I think it also the reason why he could stay for so long. He didn't build productive economy by the cost of having everyone nearby corrupt, which means they are either must be loyal or go in jail/suddenly disappear/get poisoned, while Putin remains in power

[@user-dp2cj9vs8k]

In my opinion Putin didn't modernise russian economics. Liberal prime minestery Mikhail Kasyanov did it and Putin just let him to reform Russia but after Putin's reelection in 2004 he changed prime menister to an average conservative. Then there was crisis in 2007 and after that russian economics already wasn't able to grew so fast as it was before, Putin had the choice between economic growth + democratization or saving his in power and economic stagnation. He had obviously chosen the second way. And then he crashed protests in 2011 annexed Crimea and so on :/

[@badluck5647]

Putin has always had some impressively smart economists working for him. I imagine Russia could have been a global economic player if these bureaucrats had the goal of growing the economy instead of withstanding sanctions and concentrating wealth in the hands of Putin's friends and family.

[@bachelor3846]

Where from do you get this split between economic growth + democratization and autocracy + stagnation? There too many examples in history that economical growth can happen in very autocratic regimes. For example in China. Or South Korea had the highest rates of economic growth when it had dictatorship. ‘Spanish miracle’ happen during the latter part of Francoist regime. I don’t want to say that dictators help countries to grow, but their presence can’t stop economical progress. And democratization doesn’t promise you welfare, for example in Ukraine after Maidan the society became much more democratic while economy was permanently collapsing. The correlation is different. Rich countries in average tend to democratization. The statement ‘democracies have higher economical output’ is false.

[@badluck5647]

@@bachelor3846 Your examples of Spain, South Korea, and China are because they were closed economies that opened up to trade. Just look at what is happening to China as president Pooh cracks down on industries for his own poltical ambition instead of economic interests. Without the protection of the rule of law, foreign investors are fleeing the country and China is on the verge of a recession. Autocracies create poor economic conditions.

[@jensschroder8214]

In Germany, Putin was always considered smart. Nobody would have thought that he would be so stupid as to risk a war to the west. Does he really want to risk it with all Western countries at the same time? If he had bet on trade with the West, he might even have won but not with war.

[@bachelor3846]

@@jensschroder8214 He had bet on trade with the West in his first president decade. The reasons why he stopped believing in Western ideas didn’t come from ‘inside of Putin’s nature’ rather was the result of Western policy (maybe he misinterpreted Western politics as aggressive towards Russia, doesn’t matter). And till the very end of 2021 he was trying to trade with the West, enough to remember Nord Stream 2 and all other projects. We don’t know why he began this war, the answer ‘he is stupid’ doesn’t work.

[@LeoN-wc9od]

This is also the reason why leaders shouldn't stay in power for more than 8 years.

[@LizardSpork]

"If you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” - (probably not) Abraham Lincoln

[@animeshthakur5693]

It's by Robert Ingersoll, probably.

[@bachelor3846]

So… how can we interpret results of the ‘test’, if Putin changes his character each decade?

[@LizardSpork]

@@bachelor3846 I think fundamentally Putin has never changed, he's always the murderous corrupt KGB officer without a conscience and willing to do anything to gain and hold on to power. The only thing that changed is the way he went about it "liberal" when he needed Western investment, "conservative" when he's winning over the older generation and "nationalist" when all internal oppositions are removed and he can finally avenge the downfall of the Soviet Union with him as the new Tsar of All Russia.

[@ronaldgarrison8478]

If I got him to drink a fifth or two of wine, that would probably be a bigger ROI, and much faster. But I must admit, I have no experience with power.

[@arty5876]

@@bachelor3846 Putin didn't changed his character

[@jerryofswords3502]

The man was a KGB agent this could have always been the plan but it’s difficult to become an autocrat when the people don’t trust you.

[@augustus331]

What a great overview. Learned new things. Thank you!

[@danylokolinko4464]

This is the worst overview on any topic I've ever seen.

[@augustus331]

@@danylokolinko4464 Well then you must have access to amazing overviews. Care to share with the rest of us?

[@userlog2474]

@@danylokolinko4464 bot

[@danylokolinko4464]

@@augustus331 Let me rather share what's wrong with this video. Putin never were technocratic leader. Reforms that were mentioned here were not introduced by Putin, but by PM Kasyanov and MinF Gaidar. Putin came to office right before reforms delivered first results. To claim that Putin became nationalistic only in 2020 is a travesty. Second Chechen war was started by him, war in Georgia, annexation of Crimea. Latter two with justification of "protecting Russian population". This whole Western European narrative seems to me as an attempt to explain to yourself that Putin was "different" and we couldn't have noticed.

[@BobuxGuy]

@@danylokolinko4464 Nice, account made in 2022 lol

[@gez-ye-oku]

Before a KGB agent and forever a KGB agent 😬

[@JamesC785]

Kirill, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church was a KGB agent as well.

[@paul1979uk2000]

I suspect paranoia comes with the job and Putin does see enemies everywhere, even inside Russia.

[@spritemon98]

He's literally gotten more deranged and crazy as he grew older

[@connormclernon26]

Something something absolute power corrupts absolutely

[@TKUA11]

Absolute power corrupts absolutely

[@quinntinmann]

Putin ain’t perfect no leader is but he is the best Russia has right now. He isn’t crazy either America is trying to provoke regime change and replace the current government. Which is why NATO expansion is a bad idea and is illegal.

[@gamer228r]

thats why leaders have to change the same way time changes , something not present in russia

[@barseraydn7308]

Joe Biden is older than nearly all world leaders... well nevermind. Putin is not an idiot or fanatic. He use that tools aginst you to believe he is a powerfull guy. Power is a game and manipulating the thoughts are essential to keep that power. He create an illusion and you believed it. The most realistic portrayal of Putin was in House of Cards. He is an autocract and nationalist from outside and to the public but in the private he is not very diffrent from other leaders do you realy think Russian leaders and top bruecracy is purely nationalist and conservative and zenophobic. Just think about it. He miscalculated Ukraine invasion and failed in North and north east part and he is not good at Harkiv front, he miscalculated the unanimity of west and support to the Ukraine but he didnt miscalculated one thing Ukraine cant hold forever and they will break in one point. Even western politicians small but surely "advising" Ukraine to give concessions to end this war.

[@realhuman5688]

2:04 For a second, I thought putin was wearing a hat lol

[@PurushNahiMahaPurush]

Can’t unsee it now lol

[@patrickriarchy1976]

I wonder what Putin would’ve transformed in to if the Bush administration foreign policy wasn’t so horrible

[@Elldallan]

Looking at his treatment of Chechnya and the massacre of Grozny... Probably not a whole lot. He's always been a Fascist, it's just recently that the veneer wore off enough for it to be plain for everyone to see. The only thing that might have changed is who Putin invaded first since the "horrible Bush foreign policy" you mention was the expansion of NATO, and without the protections of Article 5 there'd be a whole lot of vulnerable nations on Russia's borders.

[@JamesC785]

It appears that putin has always had the ambition of regaining russia's global power status, so his ambitions may have been easier to realise sooner.

[@sfp2290]

@@JamesC785 To be fair. At the end of Obamas term as president. Forbes ranked Putin as the number 1 most influential leader on the international affairs. With Merkel as number 2 and Barack Obama as number 3. Putin came pretty damn far, especially considering the state of Russia, at the time.

[@JamesC785]

@@sfp2290 Agreed, he did a remarkable job of pulling russia up of its knees. If only he'd stuck to the 2 term limit.

[@Elldallan]

@@JamesC785 Except he didn't really, it was just a Potemkin façade. Yes he did manage to fool everybody pretty thoroughly though.

[@zacharydavis4398]

1:49 - 2:01 the self awareness to call yourself out in this moment is wonderful😂

[@KhaalixD]

Great video!

[@wile123456]

Thumbnail looks like one of those cheap mobile games ads where it goes from level 1 to level 20 to level 100 😂

[@mab9614]

Jack. Both you and I lived through November 2006 right? Back then, the world should have known what that man really is. Hint: polonium.

[@schuller623]

What happened then?

[@xeanderman6688]

@@schuller623 Georgia

[@mab9614]

@@schuller623 The poisoning of Mr. Alexander Litvenenko. A brave man who paid his life for speaking against that man in the Kremlin.

[@happyelephant5384]

You mean 2016?

[@naufaltriandiroziqi8538]

I think it would've been better if you use selectorate theory by Bruce bueno de mesquita and a bunch of his colleagues to divide the timeline. It is basically a metric about leadership. It depends on how many people a leader needs to stay in office.

[@florin-titusniculescu5871]

he never changed , just got to fully manifest his true self

[@LokiBeckonswow]

so G Bush is responsible largely for Putin being so pissed with the west? thanks George

[@Niinsa62]

I'd sign up for CuriosityStream and Nebula, but I'm already signed up to both!

[@julianescobar2395]

Interesting analysis

[@thetrison]

Thank you for breaking down the analysis of Putin as a politician into three one decade long eras. It makes things easily comprehensible and not too academically dry.

[@marcuscarana9240]

Putin actually thinks showing off his soggy grandpa flabs is sexy.

[@aaronfreeman8436]

I can see your content on CuriosityStream? Why ?

[@odd-ysseusdoesstuff6347]

So… essentially, Putin’s going through teenage angst phases? Damn, we never grow old huh

[@righthandstep5]

Some yes. Most do mature and "grow up".

[@calumtosh1438]

So basically putin went bonkers

[@spritemon98]

Yep

[@Kage-jk4pj]

Elons on a similar arc was a technocrat (supporting Yang) now he's come out as a conservative. Next is the nationalist arc. Seems that is the final destination of all technocrat billionaires eventually.

[@dadikkedude]

@@Kage-jk4pj He's not conservative, he's a billionaire and has always supported the Republican party because of financial reasons. With his immense wealth he spends on his vanity projects presented on the surface as philanthropy.

[@command_unit7792]

No he didnt it was the Imperialist west the kept pushing everyone around it trying to protect their dying empire. Aks yourself why almost every non western country hates the west?

[@Kage-jk4pj]

​​@@dadikkedude if always supporting the republican party isn't conservative, nothing is.

[@Tommy-mb8rm]

To his credit, he is one of the few who fulfills their new year (decade) resolutions ;-)

[@moyeborotye1984]

He is same since 1999, but the scale has changed.

[@HirosamaWhite]

What a waste of potential from Putin.

[@EmM-ko7mu]

What? Putin is evolving!

[@2hotflavored666]

Just backwards!

[@TwitchyTopHat1]

What's that thing said about absolute power corrupting absolutely...

[@lanata64]

i wonder what would've happened if Russia was received friendlier ―diplomatically in the early 2000s

[@tobiasbauer198]

Nothing he already was killing people to get into power before 2000s

[@yanniskarageorgiou3573]

They were offered NATO membership in 2000 and declined and how were they treated unfairly

[@yanniskarageorgiou3573]

@Slightlylesswrong Putin rejected Clinton's offer. And why refuse? NATO is also a unilateral peace agreement where all members have veto power, Russia would have guaranteed sovereignty and would be *entitled* towards vetoing the West

[@JamesC785]

@@yanniskarageorgiou3573 + rules about democratic values before being eligible to join (Turkey is pushing those limits now).

[@yanniskarageorgiou3573]

@Slightlylesswrong The war where the Afghans asked the US to fight the Taliban for them was neither a NATO mission or non-peaceful. And Putin has a superpower in his own right the UK,Germany and France all certainly have a say as much as the US in NATO affairs

[@buskergirl]

*The Russian state was a mess" indeed. There was a new prime minister every other week. When Putin made it through a month, we were impressed that he lasted that long, we though he is just another one who will be gone pretty soon. And he is in power since. That's impressive, you have to give him that.

[@jordanlester9276]

Could you do a video about the 2020 Russian constitution and how it changed Russian politics policies and foreign military defense and security policies!?

[@user-yy8qc6yo1m]

It wasn’t the new constitution. It was the changes to constitution. The main is that Putin now can be elected 2 more times.

[@spenserkao]

Where is Yeltsin? One step forward, or upward, for supplementary explanation please!

[@xianseah4847]

Circumstances changed, and smart people adapt.

[@DaveVirtualize]

On the sidenote, I love how he was trying to reason out that separating the eras into three is a good idea. Considering that TLDR always have a thing about three sections to a video, I think every expects that lol.

[@user-cn8vj5rs5c]

The thing is, underneath it is the same person - a KGB officer

[@Fenris77]

Love the way you say "Putin". Fitting. I think somoething must have snapped upstairs for him though...

[@siuuuuu6289]

No he knows what hes doing just playing everyone for the past 3 months

[@Edo9River]

I am a member of Curiosity! and I absolutely love the History of Mathematics, I have listened 3x and now I am listening tot he History of Data! absolutely satisfying,

[@ustinov9119]

Just so's the team are aware, I did sign up for Curiosity Stream, @$11.59. My account was charged £11.59. I'm not about to quibble over a couple bucks, it was just to bring it to the teams attention. ✌

[@BabsJohnson111]

I'm even willing to acknowledge that he once has been a great, albeit flawed, leader for Russia. Now he's just a dictator who ruins his own legacy.

[@JamesC785]

Agreed - would have been great if they had stuck to term limits. If it weren't for Ukraine (2014 & now) russia could have been great again.

[@multienergico9299]

"You die young like a hero or live long enough to become a villain"

[@mayankbisht7691]

Absolute power corrupts absolutely

[@Ronnet]

I read Putin's biography (disclaimer: written by na American) and it seems to me he never was great leader. From day 1 he was operating in the shadows by making deals with friendly oligarchs. He never intended to remove corruption from Russia's economy or politics. I think he considered it a challenge that was too great with not enough personal reward to make it worthwhile. He's a populist though so he knew people would like to see him as the strong leader who fought corruption. But confiniently he only fought oligarchs that had already shown to be his political enemies.

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

he was never a great leader. a ruthless dictator who was efficient in cutting out his enemies and strengthening russia, but only strength insofar that it served him.

[@superhans85]

Well there's a surprise. George dubya fucking things up even more as per usual

[@Khannea]

Gradually turning into a senile Boomer.

[@2hotflavored666]

Damn, he's turning into Brandon!

[@yanniskarageorgiou3573]

@@2hotflavored666 Read Sun Tzu. China and Russia are playing you by making you hate Biden

[@quinntinmann]

Any leader would be a little on edge when the west is always trying to replace you

[@2hotflavored666]

@@yanniskarageorgiou3573 Sure they are. 😂 I'm definitely not hating him for the fact that he has dementia and still is running a office as important as POTUS. The amount of damage he has done to the US in a single year is astronomical. Why do you leftists just can't admit the fact that Biden should've been admitted to a nursing home a decade ago?

[@jirachi-wishmaker9242]

So you say, putin will become brandon🗿

[@jamiestratton7925]

This channel really is all about selling Nebular with a little news thrown in somewhere

[@NotKnafo]

how what you said about the technocratic era putin make him a technocrat?

[@SwordQuake2]

He's always been an authoritarian nationalist.

[@TylerSolvestri]

In other word a Soviet Communist.

[@user-yy8qc6yo1m]

He never was communist.

[@SlMON_PETRlKOV]

i think Russia will always stay an autocratic state it has been

[@veryselective]

From this we can conclude, that the West is making Putin acting like now...

[@marc-andredesrosiers523]

I would invite you, on the global channel, to explore Premier Legault of QC. Similar path. Without the military might, fortunately.

[@jontaedouglas7244]

Imagine a scenario where bush didn’t do those things 😕

[@Spido68_the_spectator]

Putin wasn't that pro western even in 2000. In a speech, he refered to the as " ennemies "

[@Deepthought-42]

👍 Suggestions for future content: The actions of UK and US leaders over a similar period. An account of UK, US and Russian involvement in Afghanistan summarising the film “Bitter Lake” (on BBC.)

[@CairnsG]

Why does this videos thumbnail have the french flag on it?

[@rushi7312]

You forget about Crimea and all that's been going behind the scene in Ukraine in your analysis...

[@alexrider2597]

Similar journey as me tbf

[@OtherWorldExplorers]

Fascinating, so he had a 30-year plan.

[@angelopugliese6034]

You forgot the fourth step when Putler became fully Fascist.

[@arsyapermana1]

It's just a phase mom

[@CarnaghSidhe]

If Putin was a "Technocrat", what was his area of expertise? You're using that word like a 12-year-old. Try looking it up.

[@command_unit7792]

He has a degree in International Law.

[@jess8189]

All the Kremlins Men is a good book to read if you want detail on all of this. Highly recommend

[@adam.maqavoy]

Biggest Concern is the Aftermath of this: *Cough* Looking At YOU - *China On Taiwan*

[@andrijherasymenko]

Is it so necessary to show his face? Dear TLDR team, consider blurring putin's face when you show it in your future videos. Thank you!

[@tomind5784]

If someone is in power for too long, they abuse power.

[@stevejohnson3357]

You note that the divisions are not so clear and that is true. All 3 parts have been present from the beginning. At the start of his political career, Putin wanted to show that he was never the loyal Soviet functionary by emphasizing his commitment to the Orthodox Church he has also been interested in the nationalist ideas of people like Ivan Ilyin or Alexander Dugin.

[@godtable]

There is a professor's lecture on KZbin taking about this war between Russia and Ukraine back in 2015.

[@sirsplicer]

Link

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

He horseshoed his way to Dolphy.

[@danylokolinko4464]

Wow, this is so badly informed video. Putin introduced tax reform? Do you know that Russia had independent PM at the time. Read a bit on the issue before calling Putin technocratic. Also, "nationalistic era" started in 2020? Not in Georgia "protecting Russian speaking population" and in Ukraine doing the same? This whole video seems that you are trying to explain yourself that Putin was "different" back then and you couldn't have noticed. Well, for Eastern Europeans it wasn't a surprise.

[@bachelor3846]

“Nationalistic era” started in late 80-es. The entire Soviet society and Soviet Union itself were torn apart by nationalistic ideas. Everyone who was actively involved in politics in 80-es and 90-es are nationalists. And Putin was also. But it was neither explicitly proclaimed idea, nor long-standing plan. Only in 2020-es Putin became openly nationalistic. And yes, Putin was very different back then. I know that Ukraine even tried to call his regime fascistic (Ruscism), but there was no feature of Russian political system that was enough to formally classify it as fascism.

[@danylokolinko4464]

@@bachelor3846 thanks for the reply. I mostly agree with your comment. However, as to fascism: In 2017 I came across Umberto Eco's criteria of fascism. In my view, it fitted Russia pretty well at the time. Few criteria were less visible then others, but still I would check every one of them as applicable then. So when you say that there was no feature, i'd disagree, there certainly were such features and for a long time. Now it is even clearer, Russia is a fascist society.

[@Judah132]

Putin is the best example of a centre-extremist.

[@oursalvationisinunity6224]

This forum should watch every person on the planet! On May 7, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. GMT there was an international online forum: Global Crisis. We are People, We want to live. This is a super forum that touches everyone! Participants from 180 countries translated it into 100 languages!

[@DacusMalus1600]

The by far! Best overview of putins carrier as man in charge in Russia, I have seen since... idk if I ever have seen a better one tbh!

[@draker769]

He did want Russia to be with European then he realized that European dont want Russia to be European

[@PossessedPotatoBird]

no, you are thinking of some of the GOOD russian rulers during the times of the russian empire, putin actually wants to fuel the divide between Europe and russia...

[@bigbootros4362]

Hopefully is next change will be in shackles

[@Michael-mh2tw]

Two issues - Censorship and autocracy are not the same thing. You can have censorship and a democracy, autocracy and complete free speech. Germany has a functioning democracy, but has a high degree of censorship, same with Australia. Also, the people still have the capacity to vote out their leaders. It may be difficult, but it is possible. Many people don't understand that the average Russian supports Putin - maybe not in reflection to his actual poll results - but look at independent polling, they do support him as a majority. This particular TLDR News guy, I don't know if he writes his own videos, but he usually mixes a fair amount of speculation at best, and bullshit at worst. Maybe it's a coincidence, maybe it's something to do with the EU channel, idk.

[@ems7623]

You're suggesting a progression. But he's been all three of these the whole time. The real progression is the consolidation of power and his willingness to use it at home and abroad.

[@platonkift8307]

Misleading video. He never was a technocrat, a conservative or a nationalist. He is KGB officer (chekist), first and foremost, and he always has been that way.

[@UkSapyy]

It makes strategic sense that Putin wants to expand. Ukraine is like the breadbasket of Europe. Russia would be much more powerful if it had it. Every nation ever has always pushed its agenda. Every single nation has done it. The British have made several attempts in history to maintain balanced military powers in Europe. Only when power tilts in the favour of one nation do Britain step in to fix it. This is partly because British identity is built on the idea of sovereign nationality and there are times in history that have concreted this into British values but also because British influence lies on/over the seas. Should a European power get too strong it can block ports, stop trade and even begin to build a navy to challenge the Royal Navy. However, of course, I'm British so let's arm Ukraine to keep the breadbasket of Europe sovereign as it's Ukrainian power to hold and not Russian. Russian can't be allowed to keep importing sovereign nations into its so call ethnic identity. Geography is what has allowed Russia to expand East swallowing and destroying culture as it goes, it shouldn't be allowed to do this in the West.

[@righthandstep5]

Careful how you defend Russia. They want a time frame that isn't compatible in our world like the gop. The 1800s are gone. Let's keep it that way

[@hermanwooster8944]

What? Britain has been about empire and colonies. Not sovereign nationality.

[@arty5876]

In general, the most incomprehensible thing in this war is Putin's goals. Considering what price Russia is paying for the war in Ukraine, sanctions, etc., it becomes unclear - is it worth it? Putin is not crazy, is he? It seems to me that if we want to understand Russia's goals, we should still listen to what Putin said on February 24. Of course, he lied and exaggerated, but still the declaration of war speech contains the reasons for the war, albeit exaggerated in order to justify it. What if Putin is really right about something, or did he have no choice? Putin said that Ukraine wanted to join NATO. So, what if Ukraine, having joined NATO, and having received guarantees of independence from Western countries that have nuclear weapons, could use these guarantees to return Donbass, and possibly Crimea to its composition? And Putin, knowing this, decided to strike a screwing blow, to forestall the enemy. Judge for yourself - if Russia is hungry for expansion, then why was Georgia not completely captured in 2008? Why was peace concluded with Georgia after 5 days of fighting, although the defeat of the Russian army was not inflicted, but on the contrary - the Georgian army was defeated in Ossetia, and Russian troops on the fifth day of the war approached the outskirts of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, after which peace was concluded on the Georgian initiative. This means that expansion is not the goal of Russia. And if Putin wanted to seize Ukraine, he should have attacked in 2014 or 2015, when Ukraine simply did not have an army. And so it turns out that Putin gave Ukraine 8 years to prepare for war. This means that the decision to invade Ukraine was made spontaneously, and before that, in 2021, 2020, 2019 and other years, Putin did not plan an invasion of Ukraine. What could make Putin make a quick decision? Well, only my point of view is logical here, that Ukraine, using NATO's protection guarantees, wanted to seize Donbass, and that Putin simply had no choice whether to invade Ukraine or not, because if he had not invaded, Donbass would have been taken by Ukrainian troops, and Russia, risking a clash with NATO, would have been sitting on the sidelines. In general, it is worthwhile to understand in principle what has been happening for the last 8 years.

[@no_more_spamplease5121]

@@hermanwooster8944 Against some Western European threats at previous ages (e.g. Imperial Spain, Napoleonic France, Hitlerian Germany), sovereign nationalism was a seductive ideology to Great Britain.

[@SP95]

Putin subscribed to Nebula

[@ronaldgarrison8478]

Is it just me, or do I see presentation influences from Kraut, and History Matters?

[@warfighter1988]

You're missing so much important info and developments.

[@tabinekoman]

It is not even his final form

[@davidford3115]

Don't conflate Saint Basil's Cathedral with the Kremlin. You displayed the Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed (Basil) when you referred to the Kremlin at 3:28.

[@jaixzz]

you call it technocrat I call it cloner-hacker

[@dkmphotography_co_uk]

Really interesting rundown of the history of Putin & his time as leader of Russia... It's important to see context & how people & their methods/ideology change (drastically) over time. Can't claim he 'always' had evil intentions in every aspect, but leaders throughout history like Hitler didn't win elections campaigning with what they ended up pushing... It does make me think of the quote from The Dark Knight film: “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

[@ThomasZadro]

I look very much forward to Putin’s next stage: His time in jail.

[@michaelgreen1515]

Everyone loves 3 points? 🤦‍♂️Oh Augustine of Hippo has a lot to answer for❣

[@lonelychameleon3595]

>GW Bush fucks up The plot thins

[@okerudjo5684]

There are a lot of inaccuracies in that video. At first, russian economy started to stabilize at 1997, Chubais even announced that the economy will improve drastically. But default was announced because of finance pyramide that was built upon State Short-term Bonds, interest rate was too low to get any profit. After crisis there were a lot of incompetent businesses that went bunkrupt, so market got free to the most profitable companies that survived. Economic reforms were made by prime-minister Kasyanov, Putin just enacted them. Oligarchs were arrested not for influencing policy of state but for criticizing corruption of Putin. Khodorkovsky was jailed for obviously falsificated case. Others who didn't oppose Putin just stayed at their places.

[@bachelor3846]

‘Oligarchs criticizing corruption’… 😂😂😂 Nice joke)

[@davidh.6930]

and in the nEXT EPISODE they ll realize that Putin has never been any of the former two but only a autocrat....

[@mperlatti]

You mean the medias creation of Putins character

[@Blind_Smithy]

Legal eagle on curiosity u say? well what a way to make me not want to contribute