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Spotlight: Crises Of Democracy, Pick Your Poison

We can be judged by our own strength, but also by the relative strength of our adversaries. Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. election was also the defeat of Hillary Clinton, and all of what she represented. Last night's unprecedented announcement that embattled French President Francois Hollande would not seek a second term will no doubt offer a boost to any number of political rivals, both in Hollande's own Socialist party, as well as those on the center-right and far-right parties.

Yet those who run for office, ready to present themselves to the public as a solver of their problems and a vessel of their trust, must be aware of a weakness in the system that runs deeper than any one candidate. The obvious case in point was last June's "Brexit" vote, where British voters registered their disgust with the entire ruling class in a referendum that was proposed by the prime minister himself. We know how that ended — it sent David Cameron packing and threatened to unravel the entire European Union. Now in Italy, on Sunday, another referendum may have major consequences for the prime minister, as well as international ramifications of its own.

The wave of referendums points to the age-old tension between representative and direct democracy. Sure, people are fed up with their rulers. But ballot measures often are just a way of "challenging more than actually trying to agree on something," reports French daily Les Echos, citing researcher Thierry Chopin. "We rarely answer the question that's being asked. We judge first those who ask the question and we react to a context."

Ultimately democracy, beyond perhaps an apartment co-op board, is too big and complicated to be run directly. Whether we lash out at our representatives when they run for office, or via a referendum that they propose, citizens must rely on others to carry out the work of governing. The real tension, then, is between democracy itself and its alternative. And these days, democracy is looking pretty weak.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

That Man In Mariupol: Is Putin Using A Body Double To Avoid Public Appearances?

Putin really is meeting with Xi in Moscow — we know that. But there are credible experts saying that the person who showed up in Mariupol the day before was someone else — the latest report that the Russian president uses a doppelganger for meetings and appearances.

screen grab of Putin in a dark down jacket

During the visit to Mariupol, the Presidential office only released screen grabs of a video

Russian President Press Office/TASS via ZUMA
Anna Akage

Have no doubt, the Vladimir Putin we’re seeing alongside Xi Jinping this week is the real Vladimir Putin. But it’s a question that is being asked after a range of credible experts have accused the Russian president of sending a body double for a high-profile visit this past weekend in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

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Reports and conspiracy theories have circulated in the past about the Russian leader using a stand-in because of health or security issues. But the reaction to the Kremlin leader's trip to Mariupol is the first time that multiple credible sources — including those who’ve spent time with him in the past — have cast doubt on the identity of the man who showed up in the southeastern Ukrainian city that Russia took over last spring after a months-long siege.

Russian opposition politician Gennady Gudkov is among those who confidently claim that a Putin look-alike, or rather one of his look-alikes, was in the Ukrainian city.

"Now that there is a war going on, I don't rule out the possibility that someone strongly resembling or disguised as Putin is playing his role," Gudkov said.

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