Frank's Musings

How can a tyrant like Putin continue to govern a large population like the140 million people in his country?   They are accustomed to autocratic rule, under the Czars, the Communist Party, znd the chaos of the Yeltsin years, Now that a former KGB operative  has assumed control for the past 23 years. the population seems wiling to withstand the supposed hardship of Western economic sanctions while acquiescing to his internationally condemned and costly violent pursuit of the restoration of Russia’s empire. 

His service to personal depictions of national grandeur contravenes the values that countries of the West (including Western Europe, North America, Japan and South Korea, for example) have enshrined since the 17^th Century Enlightenment.  Putin has been a notable denier of the universality of those principles.  His ability to carry on in defiance of the subservience of government to the will of the people that Western Civilization advocates either proves his point or evidences the effectiveness of his political  suppression.

Regardless,  a tenet of the West is that a people like Ukraine have the right to govern themselves in conformance with Western values.  (Here is the main  distinction of the Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression with the American Civil War.)   Threfore, a conclusion might be reached that because he has surpassed the boundaries of international conduct, the least risky  solution to the problem of his tyranny is to facilitate his removal from office.  Undercover intervention by assassination would be antithetical to Western values, although not unprecedented.  A traditional method, according io former Russian Foreign Minister Kozyrev, would be financially  to encourage some of his trusted associates to usher him to the grave or to an early retirement.