The odd thing about “strongman” leaders is that they are often quite weak in terms of their personal attributes and political ideas. Vladimir Putin, in power longer than most, comes across as an insecure, embittered little man, strangely marooned in a cultural time warp, whose vision of Russia’s future is propelled by a backward-looking, sentimental nostalgia for the Soviet era.
Donald Trump, by instinct a fellow authoritarian and avid Putin admirer, is notoriously thin-skinned, seemingly incapable of tolerating the slightest criticism and disproportionately vindictive towards those who challenge him. Xi Jinping, China’s ostensibly all-powerful president, exhibits similar chronic fear of dissent, as seen in his ruthless purges of the ruling Communist party and crackdowns on Hong Kong’spro-democracy activists.
