Kleptocracy. As in “klepto”, as in kleptomaniac, someone who has an apparently uncontrollable urge to steal things.
Kleptocracy, a.k.a. thievocracy, is the label often given to whatever it is that passes for governance in Russia, where Putin and the rest of the oligarchs live to steal the country’s vast resources and consolidate power.
Nice.
Of course, such a label is administered from the outside. Putin would never describe things this way. He’d most likely tell you that he’s a patriot, just one who pines for the way his country used to be.
The kleptocracy label is left to the rest of the world that’s watching, while the Soviet-era holdovers make threats and gloat as increasingly lethal weaponry is introduced that makes life even more tenuous and terrifying and miserable for the people of Ukraine.
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