Stephen Kotkin

He was going to kill them, kill them all.

Why didn't they just kill him and save themselves?

So during the 20s, Stalin resigns six times, three times in writing and three times orally, between 23 and 28.

And every time, those guys around him beg him to stay.

So not only do they fail to try to push him out, but when he himself volunteers to go out, they beg him to stay.

And then he kills all of them.

Within 10 years, every one of them, just with a few exceptions, is dead.

And so, geez, what were those guys thinking?

It's clear that Stalin was not Stalin yet.

If they knew in the 20s that in the 30s he was going to murder them all, maybe they would have acted the way you said.

So he becomes Stalin in this process.

He's not Stalin yet.

That's a really important argument that I make in the book.

But today you look at Putin.

Putin is ruining Russia.

Why doesn't somebody just assassinate him?

Xi Jinping.

He's hurting China.

He's making China enemies everywhere around the world when China was until recently popular.

China was 75% favorable globally.