The Times: Putin Has Lost His Self-control

What could have broken the Kremlin master's psyche.

After years of publicly admiring Vladimir Putin's "strong arm", US President Donald Trump has dramatically changed his rhetoric. Over the weekend, he said the Russian president has "completely lost his mind." The comment came after another wave of Russian airstrikes on civilian targets in Ukraine, which have become a familiar element of the Kremlin's strategy. But behind the dry facts is the increasingly obvious mental aggravation of Putin himself, writes The Times.

According to experts, the root of this madness is the Russian president's isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. While leaders in most of the world maintained a certain public mode, Putin literally disappeared from the scene. He spent up to two years in his residence at Novo-Ogarevo outside Moscow, avoiding any contact with even the highest officials. The residence was equipped with disinfection tunnels, and visitors - including veterans - had to undergo two weeks of isolation before meeting.

All of this limited Putin's communications to a tight circle of security officials led by Nikolai Patrushev, the man who propagated conspiracy theories about a US invasion, animal marriages in Europe, and the evacuation of Western elites to Siberia because of a "supervolcano eruption."

Psychologists and experts suggest that such isolation, coupled with paranoia and an information vacuum, may have significantly affected the Russian president's sanity. Former Kremlin advisor Gleb Pavlovsky confirms:

"The previous Putin was sensible. Now he is reacting to the pictures in his own head."

Political analyst Abbas Galliamov adds: "When a person loses self-control - it doesn't end well."

The signs of a radical change in Putin's behavior were first publicly noticed by then-U.S. senator and now Secretary of State Marco Rubio back in February 2022, after the invasion of Ukraine. "There is something wrong with Putin," he wrote on social media at the time. But while the words sounded like a warning then, today they sound like a diagnosis.

You can support the website Charter97.org

MULTI-CURRENCY ACCOUNT FOR ASSISTANCE:

Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.
Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, Warszawa
IBAN: PL97116022020000000216711123
SWIFT: BIGBPLPW
Name of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”
Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aims

You can contact us by the e-mail charter97@gmail.com