27 January

Two of the biggest baddies in Western imaginations. It's interesting to view them through through the lens of the current US mess. Both Putin and Xi's histories involve the elimination of the sort of oligarchy-led plutocracy that is currently destroying the US. Russian oligarchs became mega-rich through the privatisation of State assets (itself largely driven by Western influence). China's oligarchs are similar. Putin and Xi shut them down or controlled them. China and Russia look like 'autocracies' to us, but we tend to view things through the distorted US Puritan lens, which sees restrictions on anything as oppression. Xi and Putin moved to control the proliferation of elite rivals for control, which is what destroys societies. Often what replaces the rivalries is State-led cronyism and corruption, but the countries are much more stable and less violent as a result of the crackdowns. I doubt the West has the appetite to do the same.