Weapons that help Putin win the trust of Russians

Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing a huge challenge after 28 Western countries expelled some 150 of his country's diplomats in response to the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in the UK. But Putin is still launching a proportionate response, as he has done throughout his 18 years in power, using the methods that have made him one of the most influential leaders on the planet, according toNYTimes.

Many analysts believe that Putin is only capable of launching surprise attacks from a weak position to overwhelm the West and predict that he will fail when the Russian economy collapses under pressure and sanctions from the US and Europe. But according to commentator David Brooks, Putin's position is not weak, because his power base does not come from economics, but from his views on how to lead society in contrast to the West.

Putin entered politics in the 1990s, when Western-style reformers had all but destroyed post-Soviet Russia. American economists at the time believed that if Russia privatized state assets, law, order, and social cohesion would naturally develop.

But the reality is far from their theory. Disaster has struck as the Russian economy is in chaos, the average life expectancy of Russians is lower than that of Bangladesh, while the government is bankrupt. Natural and social resources are manipulated by oligarchs, and Russia is often despised by the United States on the international stage.

At that time, Putin appeared and restored stability to Russia with a series of strong reforms. The average life expectancy of Russians is now 71, the highest in history, and the economy has also recovered. Russia has gradually regained its position as a world power through the military campaign to destroy the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and many other international records, even "winning or losing" with the West in the Skripal case. After 18 years in power, Putin's domestic approval rating has always been at 80%.

"Putin is the elected leader of Russia, a country that is militarily strong but economically in dire straits and has been humiliated, robbed, and lied to for years. His job is to defend the country's sovereignty and interests in an international system that wants to erase sovereignty and constantly sees Russia as a threat," said Christopher Caldwell, senior editor atWeekly Standard, write.

According to this editor, Russians believe that Putin is the hero who saved the country, because he restored the country from the ruins, brought cohesion and purpose to the whole nation. He brought the oligarchs into line, promoted military development and never accepted that Russia was "underdog" in the world political system.

The struggle of ideology

Commentator Brooks believes that it is Putin's completely opposite view of Western democratic standards in building society that has built trust with the Russian people.

Western liberal democracy is built on the idea that power should be dispersed across a system of relationships and institutions to ensure mutual regulation and control. Meanwhile, Putin has always believed that power should be concentrated in the hands of a leader, from which it is distributed to the branches below.

According to him, when the country falls into a chaotic situation like Russia in the 1990s, liberal democracy will only lead to chaos when society loses confidence. This only creates opportunities for some elements to join together to rob the people and the country. At that time, centralized power will be much more effective than decentralized, uncertain power.

Second, Western liberal democracy has always been loyal to something abstract, such as a constitution, a creed, and a set of democratic rules. This explains why Western democrats often stir and express concern when leaders like Putin serve a fourth term in power, and Xi Jinping has his term limits lifted as President of China.

Meanwhile, Putin is “not only the most popular, most powerful, but also the only politician in Russia,” according to M. Steven Fish, a political scientist at the University of California-Berkeley. “In times of uncertainty and distrust, it is easier for people to follow a person than an abstraction.”

Western countries built their democracies on the idea that people who are different still deserve respect and that the art of politics is to compromise with people you "don't see eye to eye with."

But Putin built his power on the belief that those who are different from you, meaning the West, are only sowing cultural chaos and destroying your way of life. In difficult times, it is much easier to forge a homogeneous identity than to embrace cultural diversity.

With the rise of Donald Trump in the US, Xi Jinping in China and a host of populist leaders in France, Italy, the Philippines and elsewhere, Brooks said Putin’s views are becoming increasingly popular as countries adapt their political systems to the situation. “Meanwhile, if you ask who is leading the liberal democratic camp globally today, you won’t come up with a name,” he said.