David Patrikarakos David Patrikarakos

Putin’s mistake was to discard the velvet glove

Until this year, 21st-century dictators have generally avoided pariah status by employing spin rather than violence to pursue their ruthless aims

Putin and Chávez in Caracas in 2010. Credit: Getty Images 
issue 09 July 2022

To study international politics since the turn of the century has been, in large part, to study the changing nature of autocracy – and the West’s relationship to it. We kicked things off by trying to realise the Trotskyite dream of ushering in global democracy through the barrel of a gun.

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