Polling Putin: What Beatings, Censorship and Propaganda Can Do

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(Tom Toles, once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle)

Christopher Walker and Robert Orttung discuss the danger of taking Russian President Vladimir "Vlad the Invader" Putin's soaring "popularity" in the polls at face value:

... We should not accept a definition of popularity that is achieved via truncheon, censorship and propaganda.

Putin may well retain the support of certain segments of the Russian population. But given the degree of state-controlled “manufacturing” inherent in generating his “popularity,” uncritical reporting of Putin’s stratospherically high approval numbers does a disservice by feeding into the misguided notion that he is unassailable.

We've said it before:  it's a continuing tragedy that a nation with as much culture, talent and potential as Russia is led by such a sorry collection of (literally) small tyrants and kleptocrats. (But of course, we have our own national shame:  just look at the Republican-led Congress.)