So what if Putin leaves? Some new autocrat will come take the throne in his place. People will go on stealing, same as before. We’ll still have the filthy entranceways, the abandoned elderly, the cynical bureaucrats, and the brazen traffic cops…Bribing officials will still be considered a matter of course…What’s the point of changing governments if we don’t change ourselves? I don’t believe in the possibility of any kind of democracy here. We’re an oriental nation…feudal…with clergy instead of intellectuals…
