They're even much bigger idiots...

Well, if such a person mentions in there "he's a talented manipulator", where does she know from that he didn't play with her and that's what she was supposed to believe?

But why would a vain man (and Putin does seem to be vain) want to make a journalist think him a fool?

What do I know? Evil villains do that just for the sake of confusing somebody and being amused by his reactions and his stupid thinking of oneself...

Substitute the Orange Menace's name for Putin's and the descriptions could be identical. It goes a long way to explaining the mutual attraction between these two world-ending morons. *sighs*

Most current world leaders are pretty second rate.

I like Masha Gessen, I think she is smart, brave and straight talking. I watched her lecture on Donald Trump's election victory a couple of days ago (and liked it). I also read a couple of her articles (and watched a couple of interviews) on Putin and agreed with a lot of her thoughts there (most of them actually). One thing that made me discount what she said about Putin somewhat though was what seemed to be her intense almost personal hatred towards Putin that was almost tangible at some points. And from my experience I know that that feeling (even when justified) tends to cloud the minds of even the best and most objective of us. So although I agree with her on a lot of her points and almost all of them on Putin I do make a mental note of what looked to me as that almost personal hatred and I think it does come into play when it comes to her speculations about what goes on in Putin's mind or his abilities, personal qualities, etc. He is a very secretive, professional KGB guy and a true master at poker face and she never was his pal (not nearly). So while one can't fault her on facts and most of her analysis of them, when it comes to impressions and speculations about what goes on inside Putin, I discount it by how repulsed by and angry at him Masha seems to be and by how little (almost none actually) real interaction really had with the man that seems to be a mystery even to some of his close allies.

Edited at 2017-10-29 08:22 pm (UTC)

She had this one meeting with Putin when she was the editor of a wildlife magazine and he called her in because she'd failed to cover one of his eco-stunts and her boss had sacked her. She gave Putin plausible reasons for doing what she'd done and he told the boss to give her back her job. You'd think- from that- that she might have a little more time for him.

Putin isn't as smart as you think.

The smart way to deal with Putin’s Russia.

He's not easy to read. At least not for those of us who get our news filtered through Western media.

I think it's possible to be not terribly intellectually inquisitive and extremely shrewd at the same time. If your chief goals are power and wealth it's probably best not to allow yourself to be distracted by such fripperies as art or music (or philosophy or ethics).

And yet...

Some very powerful men have also been men of culture.

Stalin was a monster but wrote (apparently rather good) poetry in his youth- and was always a great reader.

Churchill won the Nobel Prize for Literature and was a gifted amateur painter.

Frederick the Great of Prussia was a musician, philosopher, patron of enlightenment thinkers.

I don't know Masha Gessen from a bar of soap, but I think I agree with your assessment rather than hers.

But her assessment certainly applies to our Prez Jake the Fake. If she was talking about him, she nailed it.

She thinks Putin and Trump are two of a kind.