President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine epitomizes one of the most enduring features of Russian governance, the one that most sets it apart from liberal democracy: the disregard, if not contempt, that Russia’s rulers display toward their own people. The ruler’s needs, no matter how selfish or capricious, almost always trump any other considerations, including the rights of ordinary individuals. Prior to Russia’s invasion, for instance, the Kremlin’s chain of command appears not to have told Russian soldiers that they were about to enter Ukraine to fight a real war. Afterward, the same chain of command neglected to claim those soldiers’ bodies because acknowledging their deaths might embarrass the Kremlin.
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