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Posted On: 08/18/2017 8:09:50 PM
Post# of 65629
The historian and cognitive scientist Noam Chomsky:
“Keep the adult public attention diverted away from the real social issues, and captivated by matters of no real importance. I know it as a common tactic of kleptocratic regimes such as Vladimir Putin’s in Russia."
There’s even a term for the tactic: “diversionary conflict.” Faced with economic difficulties or other problems potentially threatening to its survival, the regime starts a war somewhere or sharpens domestic ethnic divisions. Since the oil price plummeted in late 2014, the Putin regime has kept Russians on a steady diet of war news from eastern Ukraine and Syria (Russia and its allies have been winning). With the Syrian operation, Putin sharply raised his international standing, but a big reduction in protests against worsening economic conditions has probably been more important to him.
“Keep the adult public attention diverted away from the real social issues, and captivated by matters of no real importance. I know it as a common tactic of kleptocratic regimes such as Vladimir Putin’s in Russia."
There’s even a term for the tactic: “diversionary conflict.” Faced with economic difficulties or other problems potentially threatening to its survival, the regime starts a war somewhere or sharpens domestic ethnic divisions. Since the oil price plummeted in late 2014, the Putin regime has kept Russians on a steady diet of war news from eastern Ukraine and Syria (Russia and its allies have been winning). With the Syrian operation, Putin sharply raised his international standing, but a big reduction in protests against worsening economic conditions has probably been more important to him.
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