Anne Applebaum

So it's important, of course, to remember that Putin has a grip on power unlike almost any other leader in the world.

He controls enormous economic, political, social propaganda levers.

And at the same time, it's important to remember that there is nothing more fragile than a system in which there is no obvious successor.

You know, the funny thing about Putin is that not only do we not know who would replace him, we don't know how that person would be chosen.

There's no Politburo.

There's no Soviet Communist Party.

There's no there's no internal group who would choose the next leader.

So you have this weird, precarious situation where you have this strong system that without him would be suddenly very chaotic.

So I think the broad contour is right.

I mean, remember that we still don't know what will happen.

You know, I still think Iran is a pretty unstable country and an unhappy country that doesn't have the, you know, they haven't created a new industry like the Ukrainians have.

So I didn't know that I would be able to call them a winner.

But I would add another kind of lesson to what you just said.

The lesson is that the projection of power and influence is not only about military strength.

And actually, this is something that the U.S.

used to know.

Not even that long ago, like 10 years ago, it was something that Americans understood, American statesmen understood.

The U.S.

has historically had influence in the world, not because or only because of their military ability, but because they had the ability, almost unique ability, to have these values-based alliances.

They had allies who would