Iron brood
Apr 22, 2022
3 minutes
Putin’s rise inspired a generation of hardline populist leaders, argues this accessible but disquieting history of modern-day despots
By
Simon Tisdall
he odd thing about “strongman” leaders is that they are often quite weak in terms of their personal attributes and political ideas. Vladimir Putin comes across as an insecure, embittered little man, marooned in a cultural time warp, whose vision of Russia’s future is propelled by a backward-looking, sentimental nostalgia for
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