{"id":12500,"date":"2020-07-20T20:29:26","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T03:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=12500"},"modified":"2020-07-23T21:08:42","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T04:08:42","slug":"why-putin-fears-the-shamans-exorcism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-putin-fears-the-shamans-exorcism\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Putin Fears The Shaman’s Exorcism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The following article is from my colleague, Paul Roderick Gregory, in The\u00a0Hoover\u00a0Institution\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yakutia is a vast swath of permafrost in far eastern Siberia. Its capital, Yakutsk, the world\u2019s second coldest city, lies just south of the polar circle. Yakutsk was built by Gulag labor for its diamonds and gold. Its current governor, Aysen Nikolaev, belongs to Putin\u2019s United Russia party. The fortunate Nikolaev also has a lucrative seat on the board of Russia\u2019s largest diamond mine, which is located in his state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loyal governors are supposed to deliver for Putin when it counts. For example, they were expected to deliver an overwhelming vote for the July 1 constitutional amendments that will allow Putin to serve two more terms until 2036. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia\u2019s governors did indeed deliver for Putin, and they did so by hook<\/a> or by crook. The last public opinion polls<\/a> prior to the referendum had 41 percent voting for the amendments (24 percent undecided). By the end of voting on July 1, 79 percent had supposedly voted for the amendments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yakutia had the largest percentage of negative votes \u2013 at 41 percent– among the federal regions. With more than twenty million falsified votes nationwide, as estimated<\/a> by Russian election experts, Yakutia\u2019s real vote likely was for rejection \u2013 a rebuke for local officials and for the Kremlin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following article is from my colleague, Paul Roderick Gregory, in The\u00a0Hoover\u00a0Institution\u00a0 Yakutia is a vast swath of permafrost in far eastern Siberia. Its capital, Yakutsk, the world\u2019s second coldest city, lies just south of the polar circle. Yakutsk was built by Gulag labor for its diamonds and gold. Its current governor, Aysen Nikolaev, belongs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-3fC","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11542,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/putin-attacks-ukraine-again-to-boost-his-popularity-at-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":12500,"position":0},"title":"Putin attacks Ukraine again to boost his popularity at home","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Please read this piece by my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory in The Hill Over the weekend,\u00a0the Russian navy fired upon and seized three Ukrainian navy vessels, wounding multiple sailors in the process.\u00a0In addition, a Russian ship has been positioned to block entrance from the Black Sea to the Sea of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Vladimir Putin"","block_context":{"text":"Vladimir Putin","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/vladimir-putin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11661,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/merkel-salvages-nord-stream-but-is-putin-losing-russias-gas-monopoly\/","url_meta":{"origin":12500,"position":1},"title":"Merkel Salvages Nord Stream, But Is Putin Losing Russia’s Gas Monopoly?","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Please read this piece by my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory in Forbes The European Union took a first step with its February 8 vote towards turning Russia\u2019s gas monopoly, Gazprom, from an instrument of Russian power politics into a\u00a0regulated utility, deprived of its monopoly power.\u00a0In an odd twist, Germany, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "European Union"","block_context":{"text":"European Union","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/european-union\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12676,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/armenia-azerbaijan-conflict-adds-to-putins-headaches-wests-worries\/","url_meta":{"origin":12500,"position":2},"title":"Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict adds to Putin’s headaches, West’s worries","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"An article by my Hoover colleague Dr. Paul Gregory in The Hill The last thing\u00a0Vladimir Putin\u00a0needed is another hotspot in Russia\u2019s \u201cnear abroad\u201d \u2014 Russia\u2019s term for the 14 republics that once were part of the old Soviet Union, along with the Russian Republic.\u00a0 In 2014, Putin boasted of an\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12450,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/putins-best-laid-plans-for-lifetime-rule\/","url_meta":{"origin":12500,"position":3},"title":"Putin’s best-laid plans for lifetime rule","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 28, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The following article is from my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory in The Hill Vladimir Putin\u00a0cannot afford to be an ex-president. 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