Recent evidence suggests that Russia may be planning a major land war against Ukraine. While Russian President Vladimir Putin talks peace, several leading Russian analysts have explicitly endorsed the “Syrian variant” with respect to Ukraine.
Are they speaking for themselves or are they acting on behalf of the regime, sending out trial balloons in order to test the popular, and overseas, response to the possibility of an all-out war? In democracies, private analysts generally speak for themselves. In authoritarian, totalitarian, and fascist regimes, highly placed analysts often speak on behalf of the leader—though unofficially, thereby providing him with plausible deniability.
