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Back in January, there was this moment where Ben Judah thought there is something wrong

with Vladimir Putin. Ben has written a book about Putin. So he was watching official

Kremlin video of the president celebrating Orthodox Christmas. The video shows only Putin

himself, totally alone, listening to a religious service, lighting candles.

And it's really a haunting video that we will see in many documentaries, far into the future,

of this one man completely alone in a gold-clad chapel. His legs buckling slightly as if

he's unwell. He kind of gulps. He like gulps and his face is red. And his face twitches

very strangely.

What stood out to Ben was how isolated Putin looked. Ever since the pandemic started, Russia's

president has kept to himself. You might have seen those pictures of him, meeting with other

world leaders. Putin's on one side of an extremely long table. His counterparts are yards

away. Has Putin always been alone like this?

Are the answers no?

Vladimir Putin has been in power almost 23 years. That's a generation. There are millions

and millions of Russians that have never known the country without him. Over time, if we

look at the political science, popular strongmen tend to turn into leaders of authoritarian regimes.

...