Perhaps the point of such ridicule is that it obviates the need for violence. In a January New York Times op-ed, Russia expert Mark Galeotti wrote of a "new world of covert war," one aimed at destroying character without resorting to bullets. It's a point he reiterated in a more recent piece as well. "Welcome to the theatre of tyranny," he writes. "A style of governance which actively encourages the appearance of being tougher and nastier than it really is, and at the same time enthusiastically telegraphs that it could be tougher and nastier still."
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