After the turbulent 90s, Russians wanted to have a strong leader at the head of the state, which was a symbol of stability.
The image of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a masculine macho has been built over many years to meet the needs of Russians who, after the turbulent 90s, yearned for a strong hand of a leader who would lead the country to stability and prosperity. This image of Putin has taken root in the West as well.
An expert of the Ukrainian Prism Council of Foreign Policy Oleksandr Kraev spoke about this in an interview with the FREEDOM TV channel.
A trait of all dictators
According to him, Putin's aggressive demeanor and ostentatious masculinity were invented by Kremlin propaganda in order to play on basic psychological complexes. The image of a macho, he recalls, was “sculpted” for all dictators, including Idi Amin and Muammar Gaddafi.
, strong leaders are most suitable for “saving the motherland in difficult times”. And dictators always say that the fatherland has a hard time and needs to be saved all the time, in fact this is a game on basic complexes, on the basic perception of the world, the role men and women, etc.,” Kraev explained.
Symbolic “marriage” with the country
Thus, dictators, relatively speaking, “marry” the whole country to themselves, and turn into the irreplaceable head of the “family”.
“Only they are strong enough, powerful, correct in order to save it [the country] from all troubles and hardships. And everyone else just wants to betray and sell it. Therefore, Putin was completely unoriginal in this regard, he simply followed the example of all the rest dictators,” added the expert.
Such an image, according to him, is a reference to the ancient times of tribal communities with the most primitive concept of power.
“In the perception of dictators, power is the ability to kill anyone at any moment. This is not good management, not an adequate narrative, not a correct perception of the needs of the population, it's just an opportunity to be the strongest and most cruel,” Kraev emphasized.
Who likes Putin in the West< /h2>
Although the image of Putin the macho was created for the domestic consumer, he took root in the West.
“In the 2010s, radical Western conservatives, especially the Western far right, saw Putin as the last real politician. In their perception, unfortunately , just a politician should be something like a leader of a tribal community, that is, he must first of all broadcast power,” the expert noted.
The reason for an aggressive policy
In his opinion, it is precisely to confirm his leadership that Putin is pursuing an aggressive foreign policy.
“Even before Georgia, Ukraine and Syria, he created an external enemy, whom he constantly defeats like a real hero. This is an artificial creation of a problem , which you yourself can solve when a question that does not pose a danger is artificially made dangerous, ”summed up Alexander Kraev.
Recall that the Russians angrily reacted to the news of the supply of Western tanks to Ukraine and some criticize President Vladimir Put ina for starting the war in the first place.
