– Vladimir Putin is in an extremely pressured situation right now. He probably feels that he is being attacked from several sides.
This is what Ketil Raknes, lecturer and expert on rhetoric at Kristiania University College, says after the Russian president on Saturday afternoon called the West’s sanctions against Russia a “declaration of war” during a televised meeting with Russian flight attendants.
A few hours earlier, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would respond, without saying anything specific about how, except that it would be in line with Russian interests.
– This does not mean that Russia is isolated. The world is too big for Europe and America to isolate a country, and even more so when it comes to a country as large as Russia. There are many other countries in the world, Peskov said, according to Sky News.
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Change
Raknes explains to Dagbladet that the president, like all political parties and other states, has a need to show strength and be able to show that he can keep NATO countries away.
– Putin is good at playing on the weaknesses of others. In some western circles he has previously appeared as a strategic and calculating leader, but now he appears more emotional and uncontrolled. You can also see this in the speeches he gives, says the college lecturer.
He then says that those who research dictatorships say that this is very common among leaders who are becoming more and more isolated.
– CLEAR CHANGES: College lecturer and rhetoric expert Ketil Raknes believes that clear changes have been seen in Vladimir Putin in recent years. Photo: Kristiania University College.
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– The speech is a good picture of Putin’s change. Previously, he was seen as a calculating leader with whom one had to have a dialogue. Now he seems more like a modern Hitler figure. There is also something Goebbels-like about the massive propaganda from the Kremlin.
Raknes also believes that there is a greater chance that Putin will increase the power of his attacks throughout the war.
– The more soldiers he loses, the greater the chance that the brutality will increase. It is said that the circle of the president is getting smaller and smaller and he has created his own small echo chamber in the Kremlin. This makes Putin believe even more strongly in his own propaganda.
