If Putin was in power solely thanks to the machinery of
repressions, then it is not Russia that is a security threat,
but his regime. In such a case, the problems posed by his regime
would cease to exist when he does.

Likewise, if one argues that Putin is the only driving force
behind Stalin’s rehabilitation, then one can also continue the
fantasy that, if it weren’t for Putin, Russians would embrace
Westernized liberal democracy and stop justifying the sacrifice
of thousands of lives for the whims of the state.

These assumptions are flawed and lacking in nuance, no matter
how comforting such a shallow understanding of Russian society
might be.

The Western tendency to reduce mass-scale crime to an omnipotent
leader has always been a misleading one. Even Stalinism was not
the work of one man, but of the security services and individuals
willing to denounce their fellow neighbors for housing rights or
petty grievances <...>

Likewise, efforts to pretend that Putinism is just the work of
one man will lead to myopic thinking and poor analytical predictions
regarding Russia’s future.

Это вам не в тапки срать, а CNN, что удивительно.
на четвертый день Зоркий Глаз, ну вы знаете.