Comment by Evgeny Dainov:
Every dictator begins the establishment of his regime by destroying civil society - even before he sets about subjugating the media. At the end of the regime, however, it may happen that the dictator realizes how much better the situation would be for him personally if a full-fledged civil society suddenly emerged from somewhere. The moment is not far off when Vladimir Putin will reach exactly this insight.
Isolated, lonely, weak-willed
The destruction of civil society not only erases the desire of citizens to gather and work for a common cause. The very process of destruction forces citizens to stop believing that any causes can exist anywhere.
Thus people become "ideal" citizens: isolated from each other, lonely, having relations - from bottom to top - only with the state. And sooner or later they lose even the ability to show any initiative for anything. They become weak-willed executors of the will of the leader and, if they do not receive the appropriate instructions, do nothing. They sit isolated behind the walls of their apartments and are neither excited nor interested in what is happening outside, in the larger arenas of society. According to the famous Russian proverb: "Моя хата с краю - я ничего не знаю" (literally translated: "Моя хата с краю - я ничего не знаю"). They fall into shock and a complete inability to take any reasonable action at the moment when it turns out that what is happening "somewhere out there" can affect them directly.
This is the state of many Muscovites, which we see every day in those videos they have been filming since Ukrainian drones and missiles began hitting industrial facilities in Moscow. "What is happening? Why is it happening? Why us? What do we have to do with anything?"
The stupor of events is the permanent state of these people. Therefore, by definition, they are unable to gather themselves and resist any catastrophe - such as defending their leader's regime when it finds itself under attack.
This was already seen during the mutiny of the "Wagner" military group, led by Putin's former chef, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Having left the front for Moscow to "punish the guilty", Prigozhin captured Rostov-on-Don without resistance. And this is perhaps the most militarized city in all of Russia, with a huge number of soldiers and military headquarters. Prigozhin's column entered the city, set up camp in the center, and Prigozhin summoned the top generals to scold them in front of the camera. Then he continued on to Moscow and stopped the offensive only because he agreed on something with Putin and believed some promise. And he was accordingly shot down from a plane a little later.
Dictators always make the same mistake
Before Putin, the leaders of regimes in Egypt, Libya, Syria found themselves in the same situation. And before them - the communist leaders throughout Eastern Europe. Even the mighty Soviet Union collapsed in an afternoon, without a single Soviet citizen standing up for it.
Dictators always step on the same hoe, because they do not learn from history. Each of them, looking at his fallen colleagues, says to himself: "These fell because they were fools. I am smart and it will not happen to me".
Under the pressure of Ukrainian heroism, the unrest in the Russian elite is increasing with each passing day. Many different groups are in the process of forming, which are already playing tricks on each other. The goal of all is one and it is not to save the Putin regime. On the contrary, they are fighting along the starting line to occupy more advantageous positions for the overthrow of the Russian leader and the seizure of power in their own hands.
When this happens, there will not be a single citizen in all of Russia who will stand in support of the regime and Putin himself. Because in Putin's Russia there are still people, but probably no citizens anymore. He himself liquidated them long ago.