AICp - we really know nothing of the interior workings of the Kremlin - Putin is a wily operator - I heard a piece today on RN whereby Albright was quoted as saying when she first met Putin: 'he is a 'little man' with something reptilian about him' - she didn't like him - he is an operator who knows how to work behind the scenes, in the shadows. A former KGB man - and suddenly he popped up as Yeltsin's protegee, who suggested him as successor and he got elected after Yeltsin proved incapable (sick and a drunk).
The Communist-Russian inner circles were always a hotbed of intrigue, from the very beginning. Lenin, for example, never trusted Stalin and didn't want Stalin to succeed him. Trotzky was assassinated in far away Mexico - and many more similar stories, again nothing new in Russia's history.
These men are frightening - and Putin is the Master of that technique. However, he seems to have held Russia together and allowed it and helped it to move into a modern economy (no doubt enriching himself along the way), so some grudging respect is probably happening from his circle and from the public. He may have 'lost it' due to living isolated for some three months just before X-mas, due to being exposed to Covid19, but he wasn't ill - so maybe he became introspective and morbid about turning 70 this year and wanting to leave a legacy? Who is to know, and who cares, he is disturbing world peace and he must be stopped! Go well, all! Taurisk
