Mission 000 part 2
We are looking back in 2022. Everybody thinks Russia is under the exclusive thumb of Vladimir Putin in 2022. But the first phase of ZIL is set around 2007-2009. At this time, Russia was starting to solidify under Putin’s control. Opinions were still quite diverse.
Most people nowadays have forgotten. Putin didn’t come to power as a level 100 dictator. He was probably not even level 50. Putin’s current high level dictatorship comes after over two decades in power, not before.
I am going to keep making this point through most of my writings. Becoming president, or prime minister, or chairman, doesn’t make somebody level 100. A low level mediocrite could be shoved into power as a compromise candidate between political factions. Or to serve as a puppet for others.
Very few people in 2022 will remember that Putin was once that low level mediocrite. You need a good memory, an interest in reading broadly, and the energy to pursue all kinds of trivia.
I remember reading an article around 2001 that summed this up: Putin got into power because he had no friends. He wasn’t tied to any faction or group. He had no ideology. Rich and powerful Russians did not feel threatened by this colorless, small sized man with a slightly high voice, so they accepted his appointment. (Same logic behind the elevation of Xi Jinping. Xi was a man with no enemies, widely regarded as super neutral and moderate and unassuming and pleasant in the early 2010s. But that’s another story.)
Russia was a lawless place in the 1990s and there were many murders. Things started to stabilize under Putin in the early 2000s. But back then, there were still a great many rich and powerful Russians, and they tussled with each other. Politically motivated murders were still few. When you have many factions, no faction is strong enough to kill someone who might be doing the work of another faction.
During his first term in power, Putin wasn’t strong enough to do anything as egregious as assassination. If he did that, many other Russian elites would react with consternation.
In my view, the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 was the first step towards dictatorship.
Politkovskaya was mostly likely killed either on orders of Putin, or Kadyrov who was doing it as a birthday present for Putin. Although she had been an irritant, she was still a relatively powerless journalist. It had proven easy to put obstacles in Politkovskaya’s reporting – eg by poisoning her tea with a non lethal dose.
Most Russian ‘irritants’ could easily be silenced with cheap tricks like finding contraband in their luggage, minor legal loopholes, or even by military conscription and subsequent assignment to a remote base.
Murdering Politkovskaya was a decisive step which suggested Putin and his cronies finally felt strong enough to kill people they didn’t like. And it was only because Putin got away with killing a journalist, that he was able to go the next step. And then the next step. Eventually taking out his main political opponent, Boris Nemtsov in 2015 right outside the Kremlin.
Just remember this:
A dictator doesn’t spring up overnight, all ready to tyrannize. He also needs time and opportunity to level up.
(future link to ZIL Discarded Drafts or Outtakes 000)
Mission 000 part 4
*reader note. Majority of readers are likely to be from warmer climes, and most will not have a sense of how ‘heating costs’ might be so significant. But consider the fact that the MMM is an airship with more than 4000 cubic meters of living and facility space on board. Then consider that you’re operating an airship at Russian latitudes. The MMM will have to be at least a few hundred meters above ground, making it colder than the already-frigid ground temperatures. The cost of keeping the facilities tolerably warm will be at least in the upper four digits of USD, GBP or Euros every month!)