On a visit last week to Abkhazia, Vladimir Putin reminded the world just how deep his KGB roots run. He spewed lies so ridiculous, so totally detached from reality, as to bespeak the worst and most humiliating moments of Soviet-era gibberish.

Putin claimed that “practically all of international society” blames Georgia for the August war with Russia. When asked how this could be so since the overwhemling majority of Westerners openly condemn Russian aggression and have refused to recognize either Ossetia or Abkhazia, Putin explained: “In the West, what is called the West, we have plenty of supporters. They are all under a certain pressure from NATO’s leading country, the United States. And, to put it bluntly, many of them don’t publicly state their positions, because they would then diverge from the U.S. position.”

Paranoia and lies from a classic neo-Soviet man.

Putin is, in other words, just as much detached from real information about the world and feedback about his own perfomrance as any Soviet ruler ever was.  The notion that the Internet has somehow opened Russia to a free flow of real information is simply nonsense.  Most Russians have no Internet access, and Mr. Putin clearly doesn’t.  Like the infamous Emperor with his “new clothes” Putin simply has no idea now ridiculous he sounds because nobody around him will say so.  Why would they, when Putin’s critics routinely get shot in the head just as they did in time of Stalin?

It’s not only us here at LR who think so.  The Financial Times  (via Anders Aslund) proclaims Putin detached from reality in devloping his “botched” policy toward Ukraine which has polarized and alienated what should be one of Russia’s closest friends.

The Kremlin is, just as it always has been, drunk on a sea of propaganda and self-delusion.  The people of Russia do not know, and it seems their leaders don’t either, that they stand utterly alone, befriended only by rogue states like Venezuela, Nicaragua and Iran.  They really believe the world loves them, but is just afraid to say so.  The fact that no civilized nation has recognized Ossetia and Abkhazia, they really believe, is all due to American-led conspiracies.  Yet, though apparently viewing the US as omnipotent, Russia has no problem threatening and menacing the US with nuclear bombers and submarines on a daily basis.  If America really were as powerful as Putin claims, that policy would be suicide.

And yet Putin does not see the contradiction in his own words, because he has become used to always being right.  Just like Stalin, he is totally disconnected from reality and hence far more dangerous to Russia than any foreign enemy.

Source: http://larussophobe.wordpress.com