In this first Post Alley video, Carol Williams and Douglas McLennan talk about Russia’s sudden shut down to deal with the COVID virus after claiming for weeks it wasn’t spreading there. Authoritarian leaders tend to deny there is a problem until it can no longer be denied. Then they pivot to blaming others, in the meantime using the crisis to crack down and consolidate their power. Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping, Hungaray’s Viktor Orban and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro are all using the virus crisis to their own ends.
Is this the end of globalism as international political cooperation sputters and nationalism rises, or is it an opportunity born out of necessity to reassert the need to work in coordinated fashion?
Great discussion and insights. Also scary in some ways to hear how these authoritarian leaders are responding .