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Donald Trump
At the time of On Tyranny’s publication, Vladimir Putin has been Russia’s authoritarian leader since 1999. He came to power by leading the Russian secret police in coordinating a series of bombings that he then used to justify starting a war in the predominantly Muslim region of Chechnya. He has continued to use terrorism crises of his government’s own invention to seize more and more power, and since the mid-2010s he has started using similar tactics to try and destabilize democratic governments in Europe and the United States (for instance, Snyder says, by interfering in the 2016 election on behalf of Donald Trump). Snyder argues that Putin has used the tactics of tyranny to convert Russia from a democracy back into an authoritarian dictatorship, and that Donald Trump’s enthusiastic support for Putin shows his affinity for tyranny over democracy.
Vladimir Putin Quotes in On Tyranny
The On Tyranny quotes below are all either spoken by Vladimir Putin or refer to Vladimir Putin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
Does the history of tyranny apply to the United States? Certainly the early Americans who spoke of “eternal vigilance” would have thought so. The logic of the system they devised was to mitigate the consequences of our real imperfections, not to celebrate our imaginary perfection. We certainly face, as did the ancient Greeks, the problem of oligarchy—ever more threatening as globalization increases differences in wealth. The odd American idea that giving money to political campaigns is free speech means that the very rich have far more speech, and so in effect far more voting power, than other citizens. We believe that we have checks and balances, but have rarely faced a situation like the present, when the less popular of the two parties controls every lever of power at the federal level, as well as the majority of state houses. The party that exercises such control proposes few policies that are popular with the society at large, and several that are generally unpopular—and thus must either fear democracy or weaken it.
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Chapter 16
Quotes
History, which for a time seemed to be running from west to east, now seems to be moving from east to west.
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Vladimir Putin Quotes in On Tyranny
The On Tyranny quotes below are all either spoken by Vladimir Putin or refer to Vladimir Putin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
Does the history of tyranny apply to the United States? Certainly the early Americans who spoke of “eternal vigilance” would have thought so. The logic of the system they devised was to mitigate the consequences of our real imperfections, not to celebrate our imaginary perfection. We certainly face, as did the ancient Greeks, the problem of oligarchy—ever more threatening as globalization increases differences in wealth. The odd American idea that giving money to political campaigns is free speech means that the very rich have far more speech, and so in effect far more voting power, than other citizens. We believe that we have checks and balances, but have rarely faced a situation like the present, when the less popular of the two parties controls every lever of power at the federal level, as well as the majority of state houses. The party that exercises such control proposes few policies that are popular with the society at large, and several that are generally unpopular—and thus must either fear democracy or weaken it.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16
Quotes
History, which for a time seemed to be running from west to east, now seems to be moving from east to west.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
