Democracy and Dictatorship – “Ephemeral” Biden and “Eternal” Putin

Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the elections brought to life an old Russian narrative, also present in neighboring Serbia as well as in our country as harmful foreign influence and that is that the Western leaders are weak and ephemeral, while Putin is already outliving them politically and ruling for a quarter of a century. The same narrative is applied to similar leaders worldwide, but in the democratic world that is called dictatorship, which is not something to boast about

 

Author: Vangel Basevski

 

The top subject these days is Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race for another tenure, influenced by US citizens and his fellow party members, reproaching him for his gaffes and the unsuccessful debate with his opponent Donald Trump. Biden accepted the criticism and withdrew. It is normal for politicians in the democratic world to accept public responsibility and withdraw if necessary and it is also normal to have change of government.

 

Putin’s political longevity

However, Putin’s fans mock such political culture. According to them, Biden’s case shows that Western leaders are weak, incapable and ephemeral, while Putin is a strong and wise leader, who endured the test of time (25 years) and who politically outlived even four US presidents: Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump (and Biden will soon accompany them). Putin’s supporters stress that as though it is something to boast about, yet in the democratic world that is called dictatorship which is the secret to Putin’s longevity.

Alexei Navalny, Boris Nemtsov, Ana Politkovskaya and other critics of Putin were poisoned and shot; he introduced draconic imprisonment sanctions for any kind of criticism, while the elections he is winning are rigged and he has no real opponent as they have been prohibited from participation.

His fond hope for power made Putin deceive legal restrictions that did not allow him to be president three times in a row, so he was prime minister for a period, while his fellow party member Dmitry Medvedev was president. Finally, Putin even amended the Constitution and the laws so that he will be able to rule the way he wanted.

Putin’s supporters deem that his authoritative rule contributes to stability, which is a much used (i.e. stock) phrase in Russia signifying that there is no turbulence and uncertainty on the political scene. It is not clear however, what kind of stability it is since Russia is leading an aggressive war, killing its citizens or making them flee the country, making Russia a war zone (especially Belgorod and sometimes even Moscow) and on top of everything, the country is under sanctions and threatened to be internationally isolated.

The narrative about the superiority of “stable” Putin over the weak and ephemeral Western leaders started spreading fast in our country following the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, especially after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This Facebook post dates from back then along with an image of Putin and the American presidents who were politically outlived by him (plus Biden) accompanied by the following words:

All US presidents who said that Putin would fall

The same was also shared by another Facebook user in the form of a joke that they republish every year on the 12th of June (on Russia Day holiday), which can be seen on the following links: 2022, 2023 and 2024, in the joke Putin outlives Biden not only politically, but also biologically, and he even manages to conquer America.

The joke is probably taken from a source in neighboring Serbia where Putin enjoys big popularity that spills over in our country as well. But before Biden became head of the US, Obama was the one who played that role in the joke. We also encountered articles in Serbia in which it states that Putin politically outlived several American presidents.

Putin’s fans are mocking West European politicians as well. One recent post says the following:

They were going to bring Putin down. But within two years, they all started dropping, one after the other. That happens when you have vassal policy towards the United States.

Some older posts, on the other hand, are mocking the (relatively) short careers of British Prime Ministers: Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, on the links: here and here.

 

Admiration for authoritarian rulers

The same narratives as those for Putin are used for similar authoritarian rulers throughout the world. Such is Syrian Bashar al-Assad. Now, an internet-meme appeared mocking Biden for politically outliving him, but without voicing the secret of his success. As the text specifies: ”Longing for dictators: Hussein, Gadaffi and al-Assad”, his family has been ruling Syria for 54 years with repressions and massacres, which is nothing to be proud of. Bashar Assad has been in power for 24 years already. Many will agree that he is the more decent option than Islamic State and similar fanatics destroying Syria, but he is far from being an angel.

The Cuban leader Fidel Castro also had a long political life. The Social Justice Movement Lenka has dedicated several posts to him on their Facebook page, some even stressing his dispute with the US and the fact that:

Fidel Castro politically outlived 11 American presidents.

Indeed, he ruled for almost half a century, but the author of the post forgot to tell us that Castro was a dictator that made thousands of Cubans raft their way to Miami, that being the secret to his political longevity opposed to the American presidents who had to compete on free elections.

 

Biden’s withdrawal and the joy of Putin’s fans

The joy of Putin’s fans for Biden’s withdrawal from the elections and the increased chances of Trump’s victory is less surprising, bearing in mind that he sold and/or provided arms and military equipment to Ukraine when he was president, although not as easy as Biden and not without problems. Yet, he was doing that (link: here and here).

Biden will also be remembered for his gaffes, making Putin’s fans mock him. The thing is that in the West the media can note and present this to the public while in countries such as Russia doing that is not as simple.

In the 25 years of ruling, Putin must have made a gaff, however, it is not highlighted and Russia does not have any free media that would do such a thing. His personality cult, developed for decades, is now untouchable, even when there is a reason to do so.

He had photographs of himself, riding horses half-naked and fishing, as to leave a “macho-man” impression, but that was 15-20 years ago while now he is a little older. Apparently, the photographs are now carefully selected so that he appears taller than he actually is, for which he wears high heels.

Under such circumstances when everything is propaganda, it is difficult to spread a gaff or two, although there must be some. The purpose of all this is to present Putin as superior to Western politicians such as Biden, but a great deal of it is manipulation.

 

 

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