NPR's Corey Flintoff Talks About Putin's Russia

Corey Flintoff, the NPR reporter, gave a talk at the Fairfield Theatre Company last night about his four-year stint as a correspondent from Moscow. Flintoff detailed the incredible depths of Vladimir Putin's propaganda machine, showing their changing and literally incredible responses to the shootdown of MH17 over Ukraine and the staging of an attack on Ukrainian police forces during the Maidan demonstrations. He also focused on the virtual takeover of all Russian media outlets by the government and the heavy crackdown on internal dissent and the elimination of any potential rivals to Putin. All this has led to an over 70% approval rating for Putin across Russia, although that number may be slightly overstated merely because of the futility and danger of feeling otherwise. These moves by Putin mask a declining superpower and a collapsing economy that is feeling the strain of the crash in oil prices, Western financial sanctions, and an aging and shrinking population. Fueling Russian nationalism and an "us-against-the world" mentality also helps Putin in his primary short-term goal of ensuring his re-election to another six-year term in 2018.