10 Reasons Why Vladimir Putin is a Terrible Human Being

8. He Has Created an Authoritarian Regime

As Putin came to power, his first task was to restore the management of the country, consolidate political power and neutralise alternative sources of influence: Yeltsin era oligarchs, regional governors, the media, parliament, opposition parties, and non-governmental organisations. His KGB buddies helped him with the task.

To deal with unruly regional governors, Mr Putin appointed special envoys with powers of supervision and control. Most of them were KGB veterans. The governors lost their budgets and their seats in the upper house of the Russian parliament. Later the voters lost their right to elect them.

Putin has managed not only to stay in power for 15 years, but to even strengthen his grip. Massive voter fraud, cancellation of gubernatorial elections (the regional governors are now directly appointed by the Kremlin), an absence of checks and balances, the amendment to the Constitution to increase presidential terms, public apathy and indifference toward civil liberties, and inflammatory chauvinistic propaganda in the state-controlled media, have all contributed to Vladimir Putin amassing enormous dictatorial power in his hands.

The siege mentality of the FSB and their anti-Westernism have played well with the Russian public. Anyone who dares to criticise Putin at home is branded as the internal enemy and the fifth column. In this category are the last free-thinking journalists, the recently outlawed NGOs sponsored by the West, and the few liberal politicians who still share Western values.