Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Jilly_in_VA

(9,983 posts)
Fri Mar 4, 2022, 01:52 PM Mar 2022

Putin Isn't Just Insane. It's Far Worse Than That.

The subject is Putin’s brain.

Is President Putin clinically insane? Is he choreographing madness and threats of a nuclear holocaust to frighten the West? Or does Putin know precisely what he’s doing? The questions are reasonable, but ultimately unanswerable. There is a data point, however: Russian and German scientists at Moscow’s aptly named Research Institute of the Brain in 1925 sliced and diced 30,953 sections of Vladimir Lenin’s cytoarchitecture for indications of genius.

The results of that research remain a mystery, as does a solution to the enigma of whether the heir to Lenin’s throne—one Vladimir Putin—believes his own hype or is experiencing buyer’s remorse over an invasion that caught the rest of the Kremlin unawares.

Sadly, work has not yet begun dissecting Putin’s cerebrum for clues.

Short of delving inside his mind, Fiona Hill, the former senior director for Europe and Russia on the U.S. National Security Council during the Trump administration, did a splendid job of purifying Putin’s sense and sensibility in a recent interview. “Putin is increasingly operating emotionally,” she told Politico. “It’s reestablishing dominance over what Russia sees as the Russian Imperium. We’re treading back through old historical patterns that we said that we would never permit to happen again.”

Rewind about 150 years and you will hear a familiar refrain from Russia’s imperial Romanov family, who spent 300 years brutally persuading their subjects to back endless wars. “If the West is cursing Russia, Russia is doing something right,” blustered the multi-titled Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/putin-isnt-just-insane-he-thinks-hes-gods-man-on-earth?ref=home

5 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Putin Isn't Just Insane. It's Far Worse Than That. (Original Post) Jilly_in_VA Mar 2022 OP
What do you suppose are the odds cilla4progress Mar 2022 #1
I believe the odds are high but not in the next 2 weeks Tetrachloride Mar 2022 #2
I am not sure that the Russian people would know how to live in a democracy. Thomas Hurt Mar 2022 #3
I've thought about that in the past Jilly_in_VA Mar 2022 #5
I'll save them the trouble. world wide wally Mar 2022 #4

Tetrachloride

(7,847 posts)
2. I believe the odds are high but not in the next 2 weeks
Fri Mar 4, 2022, 01:57 PM
Mar 2022

Not many people have the opportunity nor inclination at this early stage inside Russia.

Thomas Hurt

(13,903 posts)
3. I am not sure that the Russian people would know how to live in a democracy.
Fri Mar 4, 2022, 01:58 PM
Mar 2022

The closest they have come in hundreds of years is Yeltsin.

Jilly_in_VA

(9,983 posts)
5. I've thought about that in the past
Fri Mar 4, 2022, 02:18 PM
Mar 2022

You kind of have to know how democracy works to live in one. They had a (very brief) try at it in 1917 but recently maybe Yeltsin and he wasn't very good at it.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Putin Isn't Just Insane. ...