There is a way to keep control in an autocracy.
Terror.
On December 9 Russian oligarch Dmitriy Zelenov, 50, was out to dinner with friends. He felt unwell, and tumbled down several fights of stairs. He hit his head and died.
Two days prior, Grigory Kochenov fell to his death from his balcony while police were conducting a search of his apartment. On November 29 Vyacheslav Taran, co-founder of Libertex, a forex exchange company, died in a helicopter crash. On November 23 Tiantian Kullander, co-founder of Amber Group, died unexpectedly in his sleep from unknown causes. A cryptocurrency entrepreneur drowned in Puerto Rico on October 28 after tweeting that he thought people were attempting to kill him.
There were five suspicious deaths of Russian oligarchs in the month of September. The Director of a Russian Railway subsidiary shot himself while standing on the balcony of his apartment. The former head of Moscow Aviation Institute fell down a flight of stairs. The editor of Komsomolskaya Pravda suffered a stroke and suffocated while on his way to lunch. The Aviation Director of a development company drowned after falling from his boat. The Chairman of Lukoil, fell out of a window to his death.
One can imagine a montage of these deaths in a black comedy/drama scene, with gang enemies falling victim to the movie protagonist. There was such a scene in Breaking Bad, where a meth operation reached into prison to kill ten men in one minute to keep them quiet. The scene is scored in counterpoint with a lighthearted musical background while the murders take place.
A similar scene took place inThe Godfather, when the Corleone family gang wiped out rival crime families while Michael Corleone was pledging Christian faith at a baptism.This scenehad a similar audio counterpoint, set against a church organ, a priest's ritual, and Michael Corleone renouncing sin.
In Russia this is not a movie. There is no ironic music and it isn't a comedy. It is a brutal form of political body language. No Russian should entertain any illusion that their money, job, or connections will protect them from Putin's long arm if they appear disloyal to him.
The pretense is that these are accidents and natural deaths. Russians can pretend that laws are being obeyed, but everyone knows better. A deep corruption settles into Russian culture. People know they are consenting to live with the pretense. Otherwise they might fall out of a window.
Pretense is at the heart of Trump's behavior surrounding the election, and it has created a corruption of people who protect their own political interests by closing their eyes. Trump threatens political death. Jeff Flake showed what happens to U.S. Senators. Liz Cheney shows what happens to political dynasties. Jeff Sessions shows what happens to cabinet members.
Trump pretends there was widespread election fraud. His allies pretended there was reason for legislatures to reverse the vote. Trump urged his Justice Department to pretend they found fraud so Republican-majority legislatures could pretend they had justification to accept pretext electors. Trump pretended that Vice President Pence could throw out electoral votes. The pretense preserves the form of democracy but not its reality.
Democracy will be preserved when leaders in Trump's party have the courage to say aloud that they won't pretend anymore.
I wish this wasn't all so true.
Brilliant and insightful. Thank you.