War in Ukraine
Moved to the Kremlin earlier this year, some now see Dyumin as Putin’s possible successor-in-waiting. He’s viewed as capable, ruthless and cold — not too dissimilar from his boss. And he’s known to be methodical — a possible explanation for the tardiness of Russia’s counter-offensive. However, another possible explanation is that Putin is once again demonstrating how he can become paralyzed in a crisis, even disappearing from public view — a characteristic that’s previously drawn comparisons to Joseph Stalin, who retreated to his dacha and remained incommunicado when German forces blitzed their way into the Soviet Union in 1941. The parallel was first drawn by Putin’s Muscovite critics during Covid-19. Holed up in his Novo-Ogaryovo estate on the outskirts of Moscow, Putin was largely absent as the capital city battled to curb the spread of the deadly virus, with Mark Galeotti, an analyst at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, noting his trait of letting “certain serious challenges become someone else’s problem.”
