Ruth Ben-Ghiat
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
He can sleep on camera and he's still there.
Like he didn't have the inner conscience to say, hey, I shouldn't be sleeping right now.
I need to wake up because then he would be placed in a position of weakness.
He's just going to sleep right on.
It does, but it can be in classic one-party dictatorships, it's a dangerous time for the leader.
In Mobutu, who's in my book, he was a kleptocrat.
He was the biggest kleptocrat before Gaddafi.
Tell us what a kleptocrat is.
Somebody who officializes stealing from the state.
He had mansions.
He had his own Concorde airplane with its own runway, and the population was starving.
in in the congo okay and he he you know he was always like um he did these things with the purging so there was a guy i talk about who he sent to jail then he made him a minister then he sent him to jail again it's like a constant chaos so he became after many many years of this very hated and he fell ill
And this was the signal of people to act.
So he left the country to get treatment.
I forgot where he went.
Maybe Switzerland, the places dictators go.
And that was it.
He was forced into exile.
So he showed his weakness.
So when they show their weakness, that's why Putin is very guarded about his health.