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blue-wave

(4,356 posts)
Sat Feb 19, 2022, 04:38 PM Feb 2022

Is Putin Sane?

The New York Times has broached the awkward question that has been on the minds of anyone who has paid even passing attention to Vladimir Putin recently: Has he lost his mind? The Times reports that people have noticed that Putin “has fundamentally changed amid the pandemic, a shift that may have left him more paranoid, more aggrieved, and more reckless.” Two years into the pandemic, the Russian leader remains severely isolated, interacting with cabinet officials largely via video and keeping trips abroad to a minimum. When he does have to meet people face to face in Moscow, whether it’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov or French President Emmanuel Macron, they must first pass through a “disinfection tunnel” and then sit at a social distance of Olympian proportions, at tables so long that they have become a physical manifestation of Putin’s remoteness from the rest of the world.


Read More: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/02/is-vladimir-putin-sane.html


13 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Is Putin Sane? (Original Post) blue-wave Feb 2022 OP
Long covid can affect neurological functioning. . . . nt Bernardo de La Paz Feb 2022 #1
He definitely doesn't look so well lately. C_U_L8R Feb 2022 #2
I agree blue-wave Feb 2022 #4
Was thinking Rebl2 Feb 2022 #11
No . . . Lovie777 Feb 2022 #3
He has aways been very dangerous, but is more overt lately. Irish_Dem Feb 2022 #5
Putin is sane. If he wasn't, he would have invaded Ukraine by now. marie999 Feb 2022 #6
Joe Biden Once Looked Into Putin's Eyes And Said, 'I Don't Think You Have A Soul' l RestoreAmerica2020 Feb 2022 #7
Insane is a legal term - not a psychological one EYESORE 9001 Feb 2022 #8
Doesn't he have Parkinson's Disease? BigmanPigman Feb 2022 #9
NOPE Rebl2 Feb 2022 #10
Read my sig line. nt Javaman Feb 2022 #12
In My Semi-Learned Opinion As An RN, He's Sane... GB_RN Feb 2022 #13

C_U_L8R

(45,003 posts)
2. He definitely doesn't look so well lately.
Sat Feb 19, 2022, 04:43 PM
Feb 2022

He looks blotchy and gained weight, especially noticeable in his face. Somethings not right. Bad diet, steroids, or something worse? Who knows.

Rebl2

(13,516 posts)
11. Was thinking
Sat Feb 19, 2022, 09:12 PM
Feb 2022

when I saw a picture of him today his face looked like someone on a high dose of prednisone.

RestoreAmerica2020

(3,435 posts)
7. Joe Biden Once Looked Into Putin's Eyes And Said, 'I Don't Think You Have A Soul' l
Sat Feb 19, 2022, 05:07 PM
Feb 2022

..Maya Angelou on Twitter: ""When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." -- #MayaAngelou


Excerpt
Joe Biden Once Looked Into Putin's Eyes And Said, 'I Don't Think You Have A Soul'
[Colin Campbell Jul 21, 2014, 9:07 AM; Business Insider ]

The profile, published Monday, features Biden illustrating "his emphasis on personality as a factor in foreign affairs" by recalling a visit to Putin at the Kremlin in 2011, when Putin was Russia's prime minister.

"I had an interpreter, and when he was showing me his office I said, 'It’s amazing what capitalism will do, won’t it? A magnificent office!' And he laughed. As I turned, I was this close to him," Biden said, holding his hand close to his face. "I said, 'Mr. Prime Minister, I’m looking into your eyes, and I don’t think you have a soul.'"

The profiler, Evan Osnos, described being taken back.

"You said that?" Osnos asked.
Absolutely, positively," Biden replied. "And he looked back at me, and he smiled, and he said, 'We understand one another.'"

Biden sat back and exclaimed, "This is who this guy is!"

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-biden-putin-soul-2014-7%3Famp&ved=2ahUKEwjipKHX04z2AhXMIUQIHXh1DcIQFnoECBYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0Y6LPepbf7B2-puMOoB8Qv



EYESORE 9001

(25,941 posts)
8. Insane is a legal term - not a psychological one
Sat Feb 19, 2022, 05:07 PM
Feb 2022

He’s got plenty wrong in his head, but he has enough cognitive ability to refrain from invading Ukraine…yet.

BigmanPigman

(51,608 posts)
9. Doesn't he have Parkinson's Disease?
Sat Feb 19, 2022, 08:12 PM
Feb 2022

Maybe he is embarrassed to be see not as fit as he once was. He likes to appear as a macho outdoors man and he is all about imaging.

GB_RN

(2,355 posts)
13. In My Semi-Learned Opinion As An RN, He's Sane...
Sun Feb 20, 2022, 11:37 AM
Feb 2022

But he’s definitely a sociopath, which would have served him well in his role as a Colonel with the Soviet KGB. Based on other observations of him, I think he’s also an egomaniac.

He’s ostensibly the world’s richest person, albeit illegitimately (gained via access to Russia’s mob and oligarchy), and he is in love with his power and money. Being a sociopath and an egomaniac, he’s not going to give that up.

Remember the quote, “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

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