Speaker 1: Guess what, mango, what's that? Well, so you, of course
Speaker 1: remember the weird publicity stunt Vladimir Putin, you know, riding
Speaker 1: the horseback while shirtless and Siberia, Right, Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it's kind of hard to forget. Well, you know, we've
Speaker 1: been talking about doing this episode on Putin for a
Speaker 1: while now, and I was wondering, like, has this guy
Speaker 1: always been one to put on a show? And it
Speaker 1: turns out, just a few decades ago, he was actually
Speaker 1: known as somebody who worked quietly behind the scenes. If
Speaker 1: you go back to the early nineties, Putin was working
Speaker 1: for the first Democratic mayor of St. Petersburg and a
Speaker 1: totally soap check, and when former colleagues were interviewed about
Speaker 1: working with Putin, they reportedly described him as the man
Speaker 1: to see if things needed to get done, but otherwise
Speaker 1: it's somebody who kept a pretty low profile. That's kind
Speaker 1: of interesting. Yeah, And when soap Check failed to get reelected,
Speaker 1: the new mayor reportedly tried to keep Putin on board,
Speaker 1: but Putin declined the job, saying it's better to be
Speaker 1: hanged for loyalty than rewarded for betrayal. I mean, I
Speaker 1: can definitely imagine that being a line that he'd use,
Speaker 1: I mean, especially these days as someone in our definitely,
Speaker 1: But this is what really got us wondering. I mean,
Speaker 1: how did Putin go from being this strong but low
Speaker 1: profile force to being this man we've seen in power
Speaker 1: for a couple of decades now in Russia. So that's
Speaker 1: what we're talking about today. Let's dive in heither podcast listeners,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
Speaker 1: always I'm joined by my good friend man guest Ticketer
Speaker 1: and on the other side of the soundproof glass wearing
Speaker 1: one of his ridiculous T shirts. I don't know how
Speaker 1: he gets these things, because he have them made, but
Speaker 1: I feel like I need to walk the audience through
Speaker 1: this one. This this it's just okay, here's what it is.
Speaker 1: It's got a drawing of Vladimir Putin shirtless on horseback
Speaker 1: of horse standing on the roof of the Ritz, Carlton
Speaker 1: and Moscow and the caption what is it? The caption
Speaker 1: just says, Putin on the Ritz. It's such a long
Speaker 1: way to go for such a dumb joke, but that's
Speaker 1: why we love it. I mean, that dedication from Tristan
Speaker 1: to make these things. It's a pretty great and and
Speaker 1: and honestly, I'll take all the levity we can get
Speaker 1: because today's show deals entirely with Vladimir Putin and Chance Sorr.
Speaker 1: You've heard his name a lot lately, perhaps a bit
Speaker 1: more than you'd care to. And the Russian president has
Speaker 1: been incredibly active on the world stage during the past
Speaker 1: few years, and much of that activity has been met
Speaker 1: with a combination of suspicion and outrage by the international community,
Speaker 1: you know, from alleged murders carried out in his command
Speaker 1: to you know, the illegal annexation of Crimea, to the
Speaker 1: interference in our country's own election. There's no question that
Speaker 1: Putin has been a very busy guy in the past
Speaker 1: few years. But beneath his icy demeanor and over the
Speaker 1: top displaze of machismo, who is Putin really? How did
Speaker 1: he rise to power in the first place, and what
Speaker 1: does he actually want? And so those are the kinds
Speaker 1: of questions we're gonna be tackling today, right And to me,
Speaker 1: like one of the most crazy aspects of this whole
Speaker 1: Putent story is just how long he's been in power.
Speaker 1: I Mean, I don't know if you realize this, but
Speaker 1: he's been in powerful almost twenty years now. He first
Speaker 1: became the Prime Minister of Russia in nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: and in the nineteen years since he's alternated between that
Speaker 1: role and the presidency multiple times. It is crazy, I
Speaker 1: mean nineteen nine nine. If you think about that, Bill
Speaker 1: Clinton was our president in nineteen so can you imagine
Speaker 1: if he had stayed in office all those years exactly?
Speaker 1: And you know, two decades of continuous rule is pretty
Speaker 1: unheard of in democracies, though. Russia's claim at a democracy
Speaker 1: has always been if you had best, especially with all
Speaker 1: the stories of corruption. Yeah, and that's true. But before
Speaker 1: we get to ahead of ourselves, when why don't we
Speaker 1: go back to the beginning, to a time when Russia
Speaker 1: made no pretense about being a democracy. So we're going
Speaker 1: back to nineteen fifty two when Putin was born. Now,
Speaker 1: the country at that point was obviously still known as
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union, and there was no waffling about what
Speaker 1: it was, which was a one party socialist state. And
Speaker 1: Putin grew up under harsh realities of this system. And
Speaker 1: you know, his family shared a communal style apartment in
Speaker 1: Lennon Grad with I think two other families, and he
Speaker 1: was the only child of working class parents. His mother
Speaker 1: was an auto worker and his father was a decorated
Speaker 1: veteran and also a factory worker, I believe. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's so weird to think about baby Putin and even
Speaker 1: like niche Putin just being like so sullen, but so
Speaker 1: weird to say baby Putin. But what was he even
Speaker 1: like as a child. You know, well, from everything I've read,
Speaker 1: he was just a typical kid from a pretty modest background.
Speaker 1: Like he was an average student in terms of grades
Speaker 1: and and maybe even somewhat of a troublemaker in class.
Speaker 1: Their stories you read about him always throwing a racers
Speaker 1: at his classmates and blowing off his math homework. And
Speaker 1: then as a teenager, just a typical teenager you know
Speaker 1: that was throwing a racers at classmates, I guess, but
Speaker 1: the teenagers were doing at that point. But you know,
Speaker 1: Putin noticed while he was a teenager that some of
Speaker 1: the other boys his age were bigger than he was,
Speaker 1: and so he started learning judo and sambo, which is
Speaker 1: a Soviet combat technique. And this was all in order
Speaker 1: to be able to defend himself. Yeah, I think we've
Speaker 1: all heard about his love of judo, but it's really
Speaker 1: funny that he co authored a couple of books on
Speaker 1: the sport and even released like a silly instructional video.
Speaker 1: It was called Let's Learn Judo with Vladimir Putin. It
Speaker 1: came out and that eight I thought about ordering a
Speaker 1: copy of it just for for this episode, but then
Speaker 1: I thought, no, that's that's probably for the best that
Speaker 1: we not, But that anyway, I'm sure it was every
Speaker 1: kid's dream to be able to learn judo from Vladimir Putin.
Speaker 1: So obviously his childhood behavior and his manly exploits hinted
Speaker 1: at the things to come. But what about his political aspirations?
Speaker 1: Was Putin like interested in government as a kid? Well
Speaker 1: kind of, yeah. I mean he developed a passion for
Speaker 1: Spye novels and TV shows when he was still pretty young,
Speaker 1: and so much so that he even visited the KGB
Speaker 1: headquarters while he was still in school. And he did
Speaker 1: this just to find out how he could join the agency.
Speaker 1: And so because of their advice, Puttin a ended Leningrad
Speaker 1: State University, started studying law there, and then once he graduated,
Speaker 1: he immediately started working in foreign intelligence for the KGB. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and as most of our audience knows, the KGB was
Speaker 1: a national security and intelligence agency. You know, most people
Speaker 1: think of it like the Soviet equivalent to the FBI
Speaker 1: or CIA, but really it's more like a combination that
Speaker 1: two plus it's got like a military and police component
Speaker 1: as well for good measure exactly. Well, as a young recruit,
Speaker 1: Putin had very little influence on policy and mostly was
Speaker 1: working as a spy recruiter instead at that point. Still,
Speaker 1: he gradually worked his way up to be a mid
Speaker 1: level agent during his sixteen years or so with the KGB,
Speaker 1: and he was close to the end of his time
Speaker 1: there that Putin experienced what many now considered to be
Speaker 1: a really defining moment in his life. So what happened then, Well,
Speaker 1: it was nine and Putin was stationed at a KGB
Speaker 1: office in Dresden, East Germany, and the Cold War was
Speaker 1: coming to a close, and anti Communist protesters had started
Speaker 1: gathering in mass to call for the dismantling of Berlin Wall. Well,
Speaker 1: one mob in particular had formed outside the KGB offices
Speaker 1: and they were threatening to storm the building and boot
Speaker 1: out the Communists who were holed up inside, and so
Speaker 1: Putin wanted to take action and fight back the mob,
Speaker 1: but actually he was told that the KGB could do
Speaker 1: nothing until they had received orders from Moscow. So in
Speaker 1: the meantime, Putin and the others started burning these piles
Speaker 1: after piles of sensitive documents, just in case the protesters
Speaker 1: managed to get inside the building. But you know, as
Speaker 1: they waited for word from Moscow, that word actually never came.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. So I'm sure Putin didn't appreciate Moscow just
Speaker 1: hang him out to dry like that. Definitely, I mean
Speaker 1: not at all. And he later reflected on this, saying,
Speaker 1: the business of Moscow is silent. I got the feeling
Speaker 1: that the country no longer existed, that it had disappeared.
Speaker 1: It was clear that the union was ailing, and that
Speaker 1: it had a terminal disease without a cure, a paralysis
Speaker 1: of power, which you know, it must have been a
Speaker 1: hard pill for Puttin to swallow. I know that he
Speaker 1: grew up on the steady diet of Soviet propaganda and
Speaker 1: believing how strong and resilient the state was, and and
Speaker 1: now he gets this firsthand glimpse behind iron curtain and
Speaker 1: sees what a farce at all is. Well, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't long after the panic in Dressden that
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union collapsed completely, and so the country Putin
Speaker 1: had so proudly grown up in and and had served
Speaker 1: for all this time it became a worldwide symbol of
Speaker 1: what not to do. A journalist named Ben Judah has
Speaker 1: this great book on Russia and Putin and it's called
Speaker 1: Fragile Empire, and then he describes the impact of this
Speaker 1: Moscow silence incidents this way. He says, for Putin and
Speaker 1: his generation, those who did not come from intellectual families,
Speaker 1: who believed what they were told about the USS are
Speaker 1: superpower success and didn't question propaganda or what they did
Speaker 1: not have, that moment was a defining scar. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it certainly explains why Putin has been so hell bent
Speaker 1: to restore Russia's superpower status and you know, to make
Speaker 1: himself seem like such a strong man on the world stage.
Speaker 1: It's almost like he wants to take this rose in
Speaker 1: interview of the country that he has a child and
Speaker 1: turn it into reality again. But here's the thing I
Speaker 1: don't get is how does like a middle aged KGB
Speaker 1: agent turn into i don't know, like a three year
Speaker 1: potentially four term president. Well, like with most great gigs
Speaker 1: like this, it's all about who you know, and in
Speaker 1: Putin's case, he had made, you know, quite a few
Speaker 1: political connections during his time as an intelligence agent, and
Speaker 1: one in particular was anatotally soap chack that we mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: and he'd been one of Putin's law professors at university
Speaker 1: and had gone on to become the mayor of Leningrad,
Speaker 1: which of course is what we call St. Petersburg today.
Speaker 1: So when Putin resigned from the KGB in nine, so
Speaker 1: Check took him under his wing and he helped him
Speaker 1: navigate the political world. And this was during the collapse
Speaker 1: of the Soviet Union. He even gave Putin a job
Speaker 1: as his international affairs advisor. With a city mayor has
Speaker 1: his own international affairs advisor. Well, it sounds a little
Speaker 1: strange to us, but but major these in Russia, like
Speaker 1: you know St. Petersburg or Moscow, they really operate more
Speaker 1: like we would think of U. S. States operating here,
Speaker 1: and so they've got a great deal of independence and
Speaker 1: power within their own right. Really. Okay, So, so Putin's
Speaker 1: working for the mayor while his country is being restructured
Speaker 1: all around him. That still seems like a long way
Speaker 1: offering the presidency. Well, and it was. But you know,
Speaker 1: Putin worked his way from one civic office to the
Speaker 1: next until nine and this is when his Pala soap Check,
Speaker 1: had been voted out as mayor. And at that point
Speaker 1: Putin was already on good terms with one of soap
Speaker 1: Check's close friends and government and that was Boris Yeltson,
Speaker 1: who we all remember as the first President of Russia.
Speaker 1: So Putin moved to Moscow in n he started working
Speaker 1: for a government agency called the Presidential Property Management Department.
Speaker 1: Now this was an agency task with moving all the
Speaker 1: assets of the former Soviet Union to this newly formed
Speaker 1: Russian Federation. You know, since there was no private ownership
Speaker 1: whatsoever in the previous communist state, that meant that there
Speaker 1: was a ton of property and all these natural resources
Speaker 1: to be able to divvy up at that point. So
Speaker 1: it was a huge task. But I mean it also
Speaker 1: seems like this short fire recipe for corruption, right, Oh, definitely.
Speaker 1: I mean, the agency's officials could award oil, drilling rights,
Speaker 1: military equipment, all these other valuable assets to whoever offered
Speaker 1: them the most in return, and in fact, most people
Speaker 1: speculate that this is where Putin started building his vast
Speaker 1: personal fortune, which I was blown away just in doing
Speaker 1: our research this week about this, because it's thought to
Speaker 1: be in the tens of billions of dollars. I mean,
Speaker 1: I knew the guy was super rich, but tens of
Speaker 1: billions of dollars is what they estimate. That's ridiculous. Now,
Speaker 1: it seems we're only three years out from Putin's first
Speaker 1: crack of the presidency. So tell us where he goes
Speaker 1: from here? All right? So Putin reconnects with his roots
Speaker 1: in the late nineties and joins the FSB and and
Speaker 1: this is the replacement agency for the KGB, and so
Speaker 1: he quickly works his way up the ladder and its
Speaker 1: and President Yeltsin himself makes Putin the head of the FSB.
Speaker 1: Then't less. In the year after that, Yeltson promotes Putin
Speaker 1: again by appointing him as the Prime Minister of Russia.
Speaker 1: Now that's second only in command to the president in
Speaker 1: terms of rank there, but actually that's not even it.
Speaker 1: On the very same day, in August of nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: Yeltson also announced his hopes that Putin would be his
Speaker 1: presidential successor. But rather than waiting to see if the
Speaker 1: people of Russia would actually make that happen, Yeltson made
Speaker 1: an unprecedented move. With just a few months left to
Speaker 1: go in his second term, Yeltson stepped down as president.
Speaker 1: This was on New Year's Eve of nineteen nine nine,
Speaker 1: and he named Putin as the acting president in his stead,
Speaker 1: and then Putin won his first official term in the
Speaker 1: March two thousand election, which actually, by the way, this
Speaker 1: was the first time in his political career that Putin
Speaker 1: actually ran for office. That's crazy, and obviously it's this
Speaker 1: rapid rise that doesn't feel that democratic. But do we
Speaker 1: know why Yelson would take such extreme measures, Like did
Speaker 1: you just have that much faith in Putin's leadership or
Speaker 1: his abilities or something. Well, Yeltson was definitely impressed with
Speaker 1: Putin's performance, but the general consensus is that pushing him
Speaker 1: into this presidential position it was really more of a
Speaker 1: way for Yeltson to protect himself. So at the time,
Speaker 1: Russia was at war with these separatist forces in Chechnian
Speaker 1: and they wanted their region to be independent rather than
Speaker 1: just another part of Russia, and the war wasn't going
Speaker 1: well for Russia by and yelts of the approval ratings
Speaker 1: were suffering as a result of this, and so the
Speaker 1: theory actually seems pretty credible, and especially when you consider
Speaker 1: that one of Putin's first acts as president was to
Speaker 1: grant yelts In immunity from all criminal or administrative investigation.
Speaker 1: That's ridiculous. And I mean it's funny because like people
Speaker 1: always talk about Putin being an enemy of government transparency,
Speaker 1: and this all seems pretty transparent to me. It seems
Speaker 1: like a pretty obvious move. And you know, there are
Speaker 1: plenty of other telling actions that Putin took during the
Speaker 1: early years of his rule, but before we get into those,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. You're listening to Part Time
Speaker 1: Genius and we're talking about Vladimir Putin and his rise
Speaker 1: to power, all right, Mango. So, so during Putin's first
Speaker 1: term as president, there was one incident that really kicked
Speaker 1: off this whole myth of Putin as it's kind of
Speaker 1: this kind of like an unflappable man of action. And
Speaker 1: it happened back in two thousand two, and this was
Speaker 1: back when Russia was knee deep in a second war
Speaker 1: with Czech new and a group of forty Zech and
Speaker 1: militants rated this Moscow theater. Of course we all remember
Speaker 1: this story, and and they managed to take more than
Speaker 1: nine hundred civilians hostage. The militants demanded that Russian forces
Speaker 1: be withdrawn from Czechnia in return for the hostages release,
Speaker 1: but Putin actually refused to negotiate, and so the ensuing
Speaker 1: standoff drag un for three days, at which point the
Speaker 1: Russian special forces stormed the theater, and so by the
Speaker 1: end of the ordeal, all forty of the militants were dead,
Speaker 1: along with a hundred and twenty nine of those hostages
Speaker 1: under twenty nine hostages. That's really horrible at but you're
Speaker 1: saying this actually helped build Putin's reputation. Yes, surprisingly it did.
Speaker 1: I mean people abroad thought Putin's handling of this situation
Speaker 1: would actually cripple his domestic approval rating, but it actually
Speaker 1: had the opposite effect. And just looking at the changes
Speaker 1: in approval rating over a period of time here is
Speaker 1: is pretty staggering. So you know, he had been looking
Speaker 1: at an approval rating of like two percent during his
Speaker 1: brief stint as Prime minister, but his presidential ratings actually
Speaker 1: averaged in the low sixties before this Moscow hostage situation,
Speaker 1: and then after his approval rating sword to something like
Speaker 1: eighty three percent. I mean, it was crazy high. And
Speaker 1: the vast majority of Russians had responded positively to Putin's
Speaker 1: ruthless approach. So from then on he started, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of like crafting this this public image as a strongman.
Speaker 1: And you know, once I started looking into all these
Speaker 1: supermanly photo ops, I was just struck by how ridiculous
Speaker 1: an image it all adds up to, like when you
Speaker 1: piece them together. I mean, you know, they're those famous
Speaker 1: photos of him like flexing his muscles while arm wrestling
Speaker 1: or posing shirtless on horseback, but they are all these
Speaker 1: other excessively butch activities that he supposedly excels at too.
Speaker 1: So in two thousand and ten, he went on an
Speaker 1: expedition with a group of marine biologists and shot a
Speaker 1: whale with a crossbow. You know, I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: there was a scientific purpose for this. The scientists could
Speaker 1: collect its skin samples for research, And in two thousand thirteen,
Speaker 1: Putin dove two ft underwater to the bottom of the
Speaker 1: Gulf of Finland just to check out a hundred forty
Speaker 1: year old shipwreck. I mean when you piece all of
Speaker 1: this together, it really is more like a caricature. Like
Speaker 1: you know, Putin starts to sound like the old dos
Speaker 1: sekis dude, the most interesting man in the world kind
Speaker 1: of thing. I mean, you think about what you just said,
Speaker 1: like he shoots whales with crossbows and goes on these
Speaker 1: sunken shipwrecks and is a black belt judo master. I mean,
Speaker 1: the list just goes on and on, I know, but
Speaker 1: it is funny how often you can see the strings
Speaker 1: on a lot of these pr stots and how manufactured
Speaker 1: they clearly are. What do you mean by that? Like
Speaker 1: a good example is this archaeological discovery that Putin supposedly
Speaker 1: made while on a scuba diving trip in the Black Sea.
Speaker 1: So this was in two thousand eleven, and there was
Speaker 1: footage from the dive where Putin's holding these two pieces
Speaker 1: of a Greek urn that's said to be from the
Speaker 1: sixth century BC. And Putin looks at the camera and says,
Speaker 1: the boys and I found them, and it's in like
Speaker 1: two ms of clear water, Like it's just like floating there,
Speaker 1: you know, the way that price like relics tended to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the way it works. I mean, and not only
Speaker 1: is this guy super macho, but he's apparently also insanely
Speaker 1: lucky too, I guess. Yeah. And so the idea of
Speaker 1: stumbling across these ancient artifacts in a few of you
Speaker 1: to water, you know, there's obviously no way. So after
Speaker 1: three months of Russian blogs and independent media is saying
Speaker 1: the same thing, Putin's chief spokesman finally admitted that the
Speaker 1: whole thing was staged for the cameras, except you know,
Speaker 1: he was still trying to play it off as intentional.
Speaker 1: Like just listen to the super defensive statement he made
Speaker 1: in an interview. So this is his quote. Look, Putin
Speaker 1: didn't find the jug that had lay in there for
Speaker 1: many thousands of years. It's obvious. Of course they were
Speaker 1: found in the course of an expedition several weeks or
Speaker 1: days earlier. Of course they were left there or placed there.
Speaker 1: It's completely normal. There's no reason to gloat about this
Speaker 1: and everything else, like he says, Look, and of course
Speaker 1: so many times in that statement. Yeah, I mean, don't
Speaker 1: you just love it when government officials say it's your
Speaker 1: fault for taking them at face value. I mean, suddenly,
Speaker 1: like you're the idiot for thinking they actually meant what
Speaker 1: they said. Yeah, I mean, and that isn't the only
Speaker 1: time Putin has been caught in a lie. There's evidence
Speaker 1: of him being photoshopped and like looking more cut as
Speaker 1: a result of it. And uh, there's also during a
Speaker 1: visit to Siberia in two thousand thirteen, he claimed to
Speaker 1: have caught a forty six pound pike while fishing, which
Speaker 1: would actually make it one of the world's largest. But
Speaker 1: you know, the way to the fish was never substantiated,
Speaker 1: and like all these eagle eyed Russian anglers who saw
Speaker 1: the photos, they argued that Putin's cash probably the only
Speaker 1: way about twenty pounds or so, so petty, Well, you know,
Speaker 1: Putin's provado was definitely keeping with his authoritarian leanings. But
Speaker 1: one interesting idea I found in my research is that
Speaker 1: his obsession with his public image is he's actually partly
Speaker 1: a way to associate himself with other leaders in Russian history. Huh,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's an interesting idea, like, you know, putting
Speaker 1: him in line of this legacy. But but what do
Speaker 1: you mean exactly, like, did Russian tsars cheat at fishing? Well?
Speaker 1: And then not exactly. But back in two thousand and fourteen,
Speaker 1: there was a big celebration in Russia for Putin's sixty
Speaker 1: second birthday, and as part of the festivities there was
Speaker 1: this art exposition in Moscow called the Twelve Labors of Putin,
Speaker 1: Like like Hercules, Like the Twelve Labors Hercules. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's exactly it. And so in Greek mythology, Hercules completes
Speaker 1: these twelve difficult task and becomes Greece's greatest hero in
Speaker 1: the process. But in the paintings, it's Putin facing this
Speaker 1: three headed hydra with a sword and a shield in
Speaker 1: his hands. And the painting is titled the Taming of
Speaker 1: the Cretan Bowl, and it's just Putin in a toga
Speaker 1: straddling this giant bowl. Yeah. So obviously this kind of
Speaker 1: naked propaganda is right up Putin's alley. But I'm guessing
Speaker 1: there's more to this imagery than just you know, a
Speaker 1: PC Russian guy wrestling a bull. Yeah, there are a
Speaker 1: few details in the painting that speak volumes about the situation.
Speaker 1: For for instance, the bull's forehead features the crest of Crimea,
Speaker 1: which you probably remember was illegally annexed by Russian two
Speaker 1: thousand and fourteen, and ribbons bearing the Russian colors or
Speaker 1: round around the bull's horn and held his reins by Putin.
Speaker 1: You know, now, historically the Crimean peninsula has caught the
Speaker 1: attention of foreign rulers going back thousands and thousands of years,
Speaker 1: and just looking at the list of conquers and includes
Speaker 1: Julius Caesar, Caligula, Justinian, a pair of Russian puns Is
Speaker 1: as well as others, and so you know, with his
Speaker 1: own controversial coup back in two thousand fourteen, Putin's just
Speaker 1: adding his name to this illustrious list as he would
Speaker 1: see it. That's crazy. I had no idea, but I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess I explains the Crimea connection. But why would uh,
Speaker 1: why would he do this thing? Like based on Hercules
Speaker 1: or Greek mythology, like you said, Putin want to be
Speaker 1: associated with Russian rulers, right, yeah, and many Russia and
Speaker 1: Tsars have actually traced their roots back to ancient Greece.
Speaker 1: But maybe more broadly than that, this Russian Greek connection
Speaker 1: is away from Pune to legitimize these territorial claims and
Speaker 1: kind of cast himself as the inheritor of this long,
Speaker 1: proud history of of these larger than life figures, I guess.
Speaker 1: And there's actually an article in Pacific Standard that describes
Speaker 1: the effect this way. It says, by looking to ancient Rome,
Speaker 1: Greece and the reign of the Tsars, Putin continually works
Speaker 1: to wipe out the memory of the Soviet system that
Speaker 1: produced him. The elected president of Russia. Uses art, opera
Speaker 1: and holiday pageantry to assert his lineage directly from Csar's families,
Speaker 1: and to justify his foreign policy and crimea modeling on
Speaker 1: the strongest of them. He becomes a legend. That's really funny.
Speaker 1: And I guess it's like connecting him to the little
Speaker 1: stuff too, right, like finding that Grecian urn. It's it's
Speaker 1: almost a subtle way to reinforce the association between him
Speaker 1: and Greek antiquity. Yeah, it was just lucky that he
Speaker 1: stumbled on it like that, right, But you know, you
Speaker 1: think about those desperate grabs that legitimacy. They become more
Speaker 1: frequent the longer Putin's days in power. And so his
Speaker 1: first two terms as president, we're controversial enough, and and
Speaker 1: all these corruption scandals and press crackdowns and even these
Speaker 1: alleged murders that we've read about, and and since then,
Speaker 1: Putin's had a seconds then as Prime Minister, and then
Speaker 1: it returned to the presidency for a third term. At
Speaker 1: this time it's for six years instead of four. So
Speaker 1: it actually kind of makes sense that Putin would come
Speaker 1: to depend more and more on these blatant pr stunts
Speaker 1: and I guess borrowed credibility and all that to try
Speaker 1: to help ease these concerns about his seemingly endless rule. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that makes a lot of sense. Actually, when I was
Speaker 1: looking at photos, I found this thing called a teenage
Speaker 1: Putin fan club, and it's like these photos from earlier
Speaker 1: in his career. But it's kind of amazing because all
Speaker 1: these teenagers really took up the mantle of Putin and
Speaker 1: they started wearing like T shirts and posters and identified
Speaker 1: themselves as like almost Putent's biggest fans. So, actually, let
Speaker 1: let me find a few quotes for you. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is from Vika and mat Ana seventeen, and she says
Speaker 1: he is like God to me. In the fan club,
Speaker 1: we don't just sit around and look at his pictures.
Speaker 1: We participated in marches and exchange information about him. I
Speaker 1: wear a T shirt with his portrait to school. I
Speaker 1: want everyone to know I'm his fan. And here's another
Speaker 1: one from Julia Pipolova eighteen. I have five different T
Speaker 1: shirts with Putin's portrait, several kinds of postcards with vv
Speaker 1: which is Putin's nickname, on them. We designed them ourselves.
Speaker 1: It's a real commitment. But I do want to talk
Speaker 1: a little more about, you know, the state of Putin's
Speaker 1: power today and who he really is underneath all that posturing.
Speaker 1: But before we dig in, let's take a quick break,
Speaker 1: all right, mango, So it's time to dish the dirt.
Speaker 1: Who is the real Vladimir Putin? It's it's it's all
Speaker 1: on you. He's just a supersensitive guy. I think it
Speaker 1: seems like it. Well, I mean, the whole thing is
Speaker 1: it depends on who you ask, right, I mean, plenty
Speaker 1: of Russians would say he's a successful and capable leader.
Speaker 1: I mean, even if they stopped short of believing that
Speaker 1: Putin is the pinnacle of manliness that he plays at being,
Speaker 1: they still might credit him for, you know, growing the
Speaker 1: economy or boosting the country standing in the world. But
Speaker 1: many people outside of Russia, and many others within would
Speaker 1: probably say that Putin's just another bully with a chip
Speaker 1: on his shoulder. I mean, do you remember that time
Speaker 1: in two thousand seven when Putin brought his giant black
Speaker 1: labrador to an official meeting with Angela Merkel. He actually,
Speaker 1: he actually knew that Merkel was afraid of dogs because
Speaker 1: she had been bitten by one a few years earlier.
Speaker 1: So bringing his lab was like this power play he
Speaker 1: used to try and scare her. It's pathetic. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: remember this, and actually, if I remember correctly, Merkel had
Speaker 1: a pretty strong reaction of this, right Yeah, So I've
Speaker 1: actually added down here so when reporters questioned or afterwards,
Speaker 1: she broke down the reaction like this quote. I understand
Speaker 1: why he has to do this to prove he's a man.
Speaker 1: He's afraid of his own weakness. Russia has nothing, no
Speaker 1: successful politics or economy. All they have is this. Ah.
Speaker 1: That is a sick Merkel burn, I think, especially coming
Speaker 1: from a chancellor as well. Yeah, but I mean it's
Speaker 1: also super insightful, right, like as it's this obvious show
Speaker 1: of aggression to mask his weakness and to make up
Speaker 1: for some perceived slight and that's just got Putin written
Speaker 1: all over it. It's classic Putin and classic Merkel two.
Speaker 1: But I mean that that is kind of his m O.
Speaker 1: I mean, for example, this month's cover story in The
Speaker 1: Atlantic lays out the idea that, you know, the two
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen Russian hacking was was actually just an emotional
Speaker 1: retaliation for the release of the Panama Papers a few
Speaker 1: years back. I mean, that's so crazy, because you don't
Speaker 1: think of like Putting being emotional at all. Yeah, that's right. Basically,
Speaker 1: the Panama Papers were yield that an old friend of Putin's.
Speaker 1: His name was Sergey roal Dugan. I believe he had
Speaker 1: about two billion dollars in an account and his name.
Speaker 1: And this is kind of odd because Sergey was a
Speaker 1: professional cellist, and I haven't done the research to find
Speaker 1: out what most cellists make, but I don't think they
Speaker 1: typically have billions of dollars lying around. But anyway, long
Speaker 1: story short on this. When journalists were able to show
Speaker 1: that Sergey's account was likely this communal piggy bank for
Speaker 1: Putin's inner circle, so of course this situation was super
Speaker 1: embarrassing to Putin and the Russian government, and they perceived
Speaker 1: the report about Sergey as this personal attack, and they
Speaker 1: felt that it was orchestrated by the US government. So
Speaker 1: putin spokesman, the same guy who made the statement about
Speaker 1: the Grecian earn stunt you were talking about earlier, he
Speaker 1: blamed the Panama paper reporting on quote many former State
Speaker 1: Department and CIA employees who sought to destabilize Russia ahead
Speaker 1: of its parliamentary elections that September. Oh wow, So like
Speaker 1: the DNC hacking and all the Russian trolls on Facebook
Speaker 1: that this was all just like Putin's response to this
Speaker 1: attack on his favorite cellist. I guess you put it
Speaker 1: that way. It may sound a little bit weird, but
Speaker 1: I mean pretty much. But according to a Russian journalist
Speaker 1: named Andrea sold the tof, Putin called this urgent meeting
Speaker 1: of his National Security Council. This same week the Panama
Speaker 1: papers came out, and this is likely when Putin gave
Speaker 1: the order for them to strike back. That is so crazy.
Speaker 1: But I mean, looking at the timeline, those cyber attacks
Speaker 1: would have had to like come together really quickly, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's funny because so many Americans view Putin
Speaker 1: and Russia as being super organized and well informed, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know capable of carrying out these intricate, long running
Speaker 1: plots that have been planned out to a t. But
Speaker 1: this almost makes it seem like they were just winging it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think to a certain extent they actually were.
Speaker 1: And that doesn't mean Putin and Russia don't actually pose
Speaker 1: dangers to the US and to democracy in general. But
Speaker 1: you know, whether it was the result of a long
Speaker 1: and careful plot at attempt or or just something they
Speaker 1: managed to pull together on the flaw. I the Russians
Speaker 1: did interfere with our election, and by doing that undermine
Speaker 1: faith in our institutions. And the plan really worked, and
Speaker 1: that's something worth keeping in mind and all of this,
Speaker 1: and it's actually something that Julia Iophie points out in
Speaker 1: her Atlantic article. She writes Putin pulled off a spectacular
Speaker 1: geopolitical heist on a shoe string budget about two hundred
Speaker 1: million dollars. According to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper,
Speaker 1: the point is lost on many Americans. This a version
Speaker 1: of the election was as much a product of improvisation
Speaker 1: and entropy as it was of a long range vision.
Speaker 1: What makes Putin effective, what makes him dangerous, is not
Speaker 1: strategic brilliance but a tactical flexibility and adaptability, a willingness
Speaker 1: to experiment, disrupt, and to take big risks. I mean
Speaker 1: that that sounds right to me. Even something like running
Speaker 1: for a third presidential term showed that willingness in him.
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, the Russian constitution allows for
Speaker 1: a third term so long as it isn't served consecutively.
Speaker 1: But since the document itself only dates back to the
Speaker 1: early nineties, Putin's actually the first to make use of
Speaker 1: that allowance. And of course there were many people in
Speaker 1: Russia who were totally uncomfortable with this and felt that
Speaker 1: a third term actually violated the spirit of the constitution.
Speaker 1: And Russia's two thousand twelve election was controversial in other
Speaker 1: ways too, so rampant reports of electoral fraud pointed to
Speaker 1: everything from like stuffed ballot boxes to supporters being bust
Speaker 1: two different precincts to vote. I mean, it was crazy well,
Speaker 1: and and those reports only seem more credible in light
Speaker 1: of the results, right, I think, didn't Putin get something
Speaker 1: like sixty of the vote that year? Yeah, sixty percent officially,
Speaker 1: but there was a poll that came out that said
Speaker 1: fifty seven percent of Russians believed a person should be
Speaker 1: limited to two presidential terms in total. Wait, so if
Speaker 1: Russia allows two consecutive terms before you have to sit
Speaker 1: one out, does that mean Putin is running for president
Speaker 1: again this year? Yeah, the elections next month actually, But
Speaker 1: since Putin winning is such a short thing, he didn't
Speaker 1: even declare that he was running for election until last December,
Speaker 1: and honestly, he probably won't even bother the campaigning. You know,
Speaker 1: for a second, I almost envy the Russian public for
Speaker 1: not having to sit through these never ending presidential campaigns.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I guess it's not worth it if
Speaker 1: it's at the cost of actual democratic choice. But all right, well,
Speaker 1: it sounds like Putin is pretty much a lock for
Speaker 1: another six year term. So is there any upside to this?
Speaker 1: I mean not from where I'm sitting, unless you count
Speaker 1: the fact that a fourth term essentially rules out a
Speaker 1: fifth one, since you know, the constitution prevents him from
Speaker 1: running three times in a row, and he'd be seventy
Speaker 1: seven years old by the time his next chance rolls around.
Speaker 1: I don't think I would count Puttin out yet. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've seen him on that horse. I think he'll be
Speaker 1: ready when he's seventy. But it does make you wonder, like,
Speaker 1: what is a post Putin Russia going to look like?
Speaker 1: I mean, he's basically been at the wheel of the
Speaker 1: country in its current form for most of its brief existence.
Speaker 1: So what happens when he's finally gone? Yes, that's the thing, right, No,
Speaker 1: one's actually sure. Style of leadership doesn't actually allow much
Speaker 1: room for a legacy building or you know, any plans
Speaker 1: of succession. And he's so focused on his own survival
Speaker 1: and staying in power and also maintaining this appearance of
Speaker 1: legitimacy that there isn't really much time to think about
Speaker 1: how the country will get along in the future without him.
Speaker 1: As one of Putin's allies and government put it quote,
Speaker 1: we don't have a tradition of Okay, you serve two
Speaker 1: terms and you leave. We have no other tradition but
Speaker 1: to hold out to the end and leave the first. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is such a dangerous system. And when you think
Speaker 1: about it, because how can you ever make real progress
Speaker 1: when your leader is perpetually bracing for a coup? Right,
Speaker 1: It's it's almost like all of Putin's hardwired nationalism and
Speaker 1: his fondness for those glory days of Soviet rule have
Speaker 1: actually set the country up to repeat the same mistakes
Speaker 1: that made in the twentieth century. Well, I mean, I
Speaker 1: hope not for the sake of the Russian people, but
Speaker 1: you're probably right in that situation. And actually Julia came
Speaker 1: to a similar conclusion in her Atlantic article that we
Speaker 1: were talking about earlier, and he kind of sums up
Speaker 1: what we've been talking about pretty nicely, and so so,
Speaker 1: she writes, ironically, Putin has laid the groundwork for exactly
Speaker 1: the kind of chaotic collapse that he spent his political
Speaker 1: life trying to avoid, the kind of collapse that gave
Speaker 1: rise to his own rain. He has made himself a
Speaker 1: hostage to a system he built with his own hands. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, it actually makes me feel a little better
Speaker 1: after so many months of hearing about how Putin's undermining
Speaker 1: the US. Yeah, I know what you mean, obviously. And
Speaker 1: another thing that helps is this word replace or extension
Speaker 1: that I found from my web browser. So whenever the
Speaker 1: word Putin appears in an article, it automatically gets converted
Speaker 1: to Pottie Poot because that was George PUSH's nickname for him.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, you should have saved that for the
Speaker 1: fact off Mango actually for for today's fact off. I
Speaker 1: think we agreed to focus on some of the more
Speaker 1: interesting publicity stunts that were pulled off by Puttin over
Speaker 1: the years. Or are you still getting for that? Definitely?
Speaker 1: So we mentioned his horseback riding earlier, but there are
Speaker 1: a few other bizarre animals on stage to show Putin's
Speaker 1: love of animals. So back in two thousand ten, a
Speaker 1: photo surface of Putin trying to help in the tracking
Speaker 1: of polar bears as a threatened species. The photos of
Speaker 1: Putin actually putting a tracking device on a polar bears neck,
Speaker 1: but I don't actually think that's my favorite story of
Speaker 1: Pudin helping out animals. There was an effort to save
Speaker 1: a population of Siberian white cranes, and as an article
Speaker 1: in the Week dot Com puts it quote, Putin donned
Speaker 1: a puffy white jumpsuit last year and boarded a motorized
Speaker 1: hand glider to lead a flock of endangering Siberian cranes
Speaker 1: on their winter migratory path. I mean, who does that.
Speaker 1: It's just a takes a real champ birds. It's just
Speaker 1: so crazy. Well, Putin has been quoted as saying that
Speaker 1: one way for Russia to build a greater political dominance
Speaker 1: in the world is for the population to get bigger,
Speaker 1: and that families in Russia should have at least three kids,
Speaker 1: you know, for for every single family. And my favorite
Speaker 1: move he used to inspire people to get on with
Speaker 1: their baby making is that he reportedly called on none
Speaker 1: other than the beautiful singing voices of Boys two Men,
Speaker 1: and they had they actually had a concert there in Moscow,
Speaker 1: and so I don't know that probably did the trick
Speaker 1: when you think they are pretty sexy, but apparently Boys
Speaker 1: Too Men wasn't the only ones performing there. Back in
Speaker 1: two thousand ten, at a charity event in St. Petersburg,
Speaker 1: Putin himself decided to perform, and for some reason, he's saying, uh,
Speaker 1: Bat's Domino's Blueberry Hill in it. I mean, it's amazing
Speaker 1: in the audience with celebrities like Sharon Stone Kevin Costner,
Speaker 1: And while most of his stunts seemed to be faked,
Speaker 1: this one was apparently real. Actually looked that one up
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's a pretty accurate, but it's it's just
Speaker 1: so weird to watch. And why he chose a Fats
Speaker 1: Domino song like just such a weird thing. Rude there,
Speaker 1: I guess so well, in a different kind of stunt,
Speaker 1: I did like when Putin proposed that Steven Seagal, like, yes,
Speaker 1: action man, Steven Seagal, that he should become this intermediary
Speaker 1: and the communication between the US and Russia. So apparently
Speaker 1: Putin and Segal are buddies. And so when I love
Speaker 1: this reaction that when Obama got word of this recommendation,
Speaker 1: his only response was just, You've got to be kidding.
Speaker 1: That's so good. So did you ever hear the story
Speaker 1: about Patriots owner Bob Kraft and his interaction with Putin? No?
Speaker 1: I didn't. So this is back in two thousand five
Speaker 1: and a group of American business execs met with Putin
Speaker 1: for some reason, and in the meeting, Craft was showing
Speaker 1: Putin his most recent Super Bowl ring, and reportedly like,
Speaker 1: Putin just tried to ring on and then put it
Speaker 1: in his pocket and walked out of the room. And
Speaker 1: of course the media was all over it, right, and
Speaker 1: people assume Crafted not really intended to give the ring,
Speaker 1: But the next day Craft released a statement saying the
Speaker 1: Russian president was clearly taken with its uniqueness. At that point,
Speaker 1: I decided to give him. The ring is a symbol
Speaker 1: of the respect and admiration that I have for the
Speaker 1: Russian people and the leadership of President Putin. I can't
Speaker 1: imagine that that would have in his reaction and pretty
Speaker 1: much anybody's reaction from that. Wait, so why are you
Speaker 1: letting a candle? And what is that smell? Well, that, sir,
Speaker 1: is the smell of Vladimir Putin apparently, And I found
Speaker 1: this on Amazon, and it's a Vladimir Putin scented candles.
Speaker 1: So let me just let me just read the description here.
Speaker 1: It says, have you ever wished that there were a
Speaker 1: way to capture the scent of Vladimir Putin so you
Speaker 1: can have the pleasure of smelling him whenever you wanted? Well,
Speaker 1: now there is, and it's this candle. But you probably
Speaker 1: already figured that out. The Putin scented candle combines notes
Speaker 1: of pine earth and the smoke billowing from cities of
Speaker 1: your enemies. It's a manly fragrance designed to evoke the
Speaker 1: essence of Vladimir Putin and eliminate the smell of political
Speaker 1: dissidence from your home. Housing a sixteen ounced tent container
Speaker 1: that features a shirtless photo of Vladimir Putin on the lid.
Speaker 1: The Putin scented candle makes the perfect confusing housewarming president
Speaker 1: or inappropriate baby shower gifts. So I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: this is an officially sanctioned Putin smelling candle, but what ever,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is awesome. It is weird, but I
Speaker 1: have to give it to you. I think with that scent,
Speaker 1: you've overpowered me and and I have no choice but
Speaker 1: to give you this week's trophy. It is a pretty
Speaker 1: overpowering set. I think I'm gonna blow this outfield. Thank
Speaker 1: you very much. It is an honorable listeners. I'm sure
Speaker 1: we forgot some pretty incredible facts about Putin or Russia
Speaker 1: or the former Soviet Union. If you'd love to share
Speaker 1: those with us, we would love to hear them. You
Speaker 1: can always email us at part Time Genius at how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. You can also call us on
Speaker 1: our seven fact hotline that's one eight four four pt Genius,
Speaker 1: or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. But thanks
Speaker 1: so much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time
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Speaker 1: who