Many of Vladimir Putin’s public pronouncements, from his promise to “whack terrorists in the shithouse” to his advice to a French reporter to get circumcised so that he will have “nothing growing back,” appear more in need of a psychoanalysis than a political one. The Russian premier’s latest interview with Kommersant newspaper is no exception. In the space of a few sentences, Mr. Putin threatened the opposition with physical violence, asserted that Western countries follow the same model of managed succession as today’s Russia, and pretended to be ignorant of major developments in his own country — all of it in a vulgar street language more suited for a gang leader than a head of government....
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