What is going on with Putin and his regime? Less of a distinct answer to that question, and more a pondering of what we can read into the mishandling of a series of recent events, from the Navalny poisoning to Belarus, I discuss why I think Russia is likely at a crossroads, but one where I am unsure where the roads necessarily lead...

And after the break, I riff off the widespread practice of plagiarising dissertations and consider where it came from and what wider lessons one can learn. What links Putin's Candidate of Science thesis, the COVID-19 vaccine, and gangster hierarchies?

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