***** “Power must never be trusted without a check.” [ John Adams, Founding Father, Second President ]
“Six Russian Terms For What’s Happening In America” [ Maria Kuzetsova, Dan Storyev; New York Times; 6/15/25}:
1] “We both grew up in Russia in the early 2000s and lived through the country’s gradual slide into authoritarianism under President Vladimir Putin…In recent months we have been noticing something worrying: The same markers of authoritarianism we know from our youth have been appearing in America.”
2] “Our American friends often struggle to describe what exactly is happening…in part, they simply don’t have the language for it. We do. Over decades of facing dictators, Russians have developed a rich vocabulary to make sense of authoritarian reality – a weave of neologisms, coded jokes, doublespeak and Aesopian language.”
3]. “Words like “oligarchy” and “gulag” have been pressed into use as people try to make sense of President Trump’s administration…We decided to write a phrase book..to help Americans name their new reality. Because when we can describe what is happening, it becomes a bit easier to fight it.”
4] “Mnogohodovochka” is an ironic Russian term that translates literally as “multiple steps” and usually means “master plan.” The term emerged online to mock the Kremlin’s need to explain Mr. Putin’s actions, even when they made no sense. State media presents everything he does as part of a brilliant long-term plan that will – one day – bring great benefit to ordinary citizens.” [note” observe Republican verbal gymnastics defending Trump!!!!!]
5] “One of Mr. Putin’s plans has actually been successful: the building of a “power vertical.” or. “vertikal vlasti” in Russian. It essentially means a hypercentralized, strictly hierarchical system of governance.”………..
“Remind you of anything?…this approach aligns all too well with the so-called unitary executive theory, long pushed by American conservatives. According to it, the president has the sole authority over the executive branch, which supersedes the rest. Mr. Trump has already put the principle to strenuous use, flooding the country with executive orders and defying the courts.”
“When you see your government hiring people based exclusively on loyalty, threatening political opponents, making nonpartisan agencies politically dependent and even effectively disobeying the Supreme Court, know: This is what a power vertical looks like.”
***** “The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice.” { Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson }
6] “Who helps the leader establish his power vertical? Roughly translated as “men of power,” ‘siloviki”. is a political caste authorized to use violence against citizens.”
“Siloviki” is perhaps the most borrowed word in Russian studies – probably because it explains so much about Mr. Putin’s Russia. Its members are the police, the border control, the army, the security services, the spies.” ……..
“When we watched the videos of the arrests of Mahmoud Khalil or Rumeysa Ozturk, we felt a horrible sense of deja vu. Men in plain clothes taking an activist away? We have seen it before, many times. This is the work of Mr. Trump’s budding. siloviki – operating without a warrant, in defiance of due process and under political orders.”
***** “The very first essential for success is a perpetually consistent and regular employment of violence.”
[ Adolf Hitler }
7] “Dictators are relatively powerless without a pliable population creating the illusion of support for the leader. That’s where “byudzhetniki” come in. the word literally means “budget people” and describes the various people whose livelihoods depends on the government. In Russia they could hold almost any position: civil servants, students, workers, teachers, doctors.’
“The authorities are not shy about using this dependency as leverage. those images of cheering crowds at mr. Putin’s Red Square speeches? You might be surprised to find out that a large chunk, if not a majority, have been pushed to attend. by their employers…”Byudzhetniki”. are everywhere in Russia.”……..
“In America, this kind of paid-for partisanship is rare. But there are signs the Trump administration wants its own byudzhetniki.”
8] “What does all this authoritarianism lead to? In Russia, imperialism and war….many in the Kremlin were certain that Russia’s place must be at the center – at least of the former Soviet Union. The. “near abroad”. denoted former Soviet republics, suggesting that they might be independent but just for now.”……
“The term entered the American vocabulary when the U.S. military used it to describe Greenland and Panama in an internal memo. The way the Trump administration has been talking about these countries has us flabbergasted. It repeats, trope by trope, the Kremlin’s propaganda leading up to the war in Ukraine..”….
9] “Good czar, bad boyars”…Dating back to imperial Russia, it describes the belief that the ruler is wise and benevolent but is surrounded by corrupt officials and elites – boyars, in czarist Russia – who sabotage the ruler’s good intentions.
“Kremlin propaganda is suffused with that sentiment…that if Mr. Putin only knew about their suffering, he would help them.” ………
“We can see this playing out pretty clearly in America. The MAGA movement encourages supports to “trust the plan>”. And when things go wrong, as with “Signalgate,” Mr. Trump distances himself from it. He similarly stayed away from the Department of Government Efficiency and ushered mr. Musk out the door when he became too unpopular. The bad boyar had to go.”
***. “Great is the mischief of a legal crime.” [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
With Justice For All 