What 'Experts' Mean, When They Say 'Putin Has Lost Authority' (Mana).
Those who fell for the "image" of Putin are surprised and confused by his public submission to his Apprentice on Saturday evening.
Putin plays a role like an actor: Paleo-male. Alone. Directing everything. All powerful. Autocratic. Russians and non-Russians fall for this act. Earnest "experts" like Fan Fiction addicts, tell us what this character is thinking.
Putin is a front for a power system. He plays this role. You don't think Tom Cruise actually flies fighter jets? He just acts.
Now, another front, the system's chosen successor, felt forced into provoking a Public Submission to the Chef's (another actor) power as the system's successor.
It's like when a long running play on Broadway's lead actor changes - a new actor is playing the investigator Javert in Les Misèrables (incidentally Dostoyevsky copied Valjean for the Investigator in Crime and Punishment - Putin identifies with the sleuth in C&P, when in fact Putin is the dunce of a St Petersburg law student who kills two women to see if he can escape culpability).
That act of submission is done. Putin and those he serves publicly submitted on Saturday evening. He kissed the Chef's ring. Everything else is mere shadow play.
Can the system survive this public election? Probably not.
But talk of play act elections which have NO substantive value or impact on who leads is laughable.
Power in Russia is transmitted by public acts of submission AND huge blood sacrifices (e.g. Chechnya). Yet, as Ukraine shows Russia: "it's not enough only to sacrifice 500,000 souls. If you do not sacrifice according to the laws of war, with each dead Ukrainian or Ruschist, your SYSTEM loses power. Instead of gaining authority, the system's 'right' melts.
So a public election (like Putin submitting to the Chef on Saturday evening) in the Minsk III Agreement IS necessary. Yet, it's not sufficient to transmit power (Mana) inside the Ruschist community.
What "experts" who fell for and promote the "strong man" troll now are really saying as they note a contradiction (Putin's public submission to the chef in the Minsk III Agreement on Saturday evening) between how they think a strong-man is supposed to act and how they think a man acting like this archetypal strong man should act is:
"WE the so-called Russia-experts have lost authority. We fell for the shadows dancing on the cave walls by the fire of Russian Disinfolklore, not the reality."
The entire system - including its two preeminent actors Putin and the Chef (and the interests they represent inside the system) has indeed lost authority.
As indeed have the Kremlinologists who dine out on interpretations of Russia: they've lost authority.
Military experts who understand the power of a gun but not of what power in complex communities consists are commenting these days on matters way beyond their bailiwick.
There is, as I wrote a month ago "No 'Right' In Russia Any Longer.”
Putin's plea for the "Rule of Law" and the "Constitutional Order" yesterday is the plea from a SYSTEM that was already falling from a window before the Chef's successful troll for a public act of submission.
This lack of "Right" (or Mana / authority) is nothing to do with activities in the past few days.
It's because of Russia's complete and utter disaster in Ukraine. From Day One. Hostomol, etc.
The system has lost authority because it has murdered hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, it's about to lose Crimea, and all it's got was a Chef for its next anointed leader.
Ukraine's understanding of where authority derives and how it is transmitted is exemplary. Its leadership and intelligence services have been expertly chipping away at the struts that support the entire Russian system. And now, like a Netflix, we're seeing the results
“Paleo - male”, I love it😅 (fascinating read as usual)