Anne Applebaum Quotes

The Soviets, where ten percent of the population controls the entire public by dictatorship. This will certainly not last long, in light of the historical dialectic

I think Putin has changed, for sure. He has changed over time and he has been emboldened by, whether it's true or not, the perception is that we've pulled back, so people do change and this is an example of that.

People expect some kinds of decisions from Putin that will help them see their own future. A significant part of the people that he relies on are quite content with him telling them that nothing is going to change. But that part of the elite that does want to see some changes and improvements are going to expect him to, in his next term, bring Russia back into the club of the great powers.

It is bad governments, not bad people, who cause revolutions.

If there are people who yearn for the days when Saddam Hussein was in power, then I am not among them.

When ordinary people wake up, elites begin to tremble in their boots.

In 2003, I warned of a 'creeping coup' in Russia against the forces of democracy and market capitalism in Russia.

She was already learning that if you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don't apply to you.

In political life, it is extremely difficult to remain loyal to a friendship when constellations of power or interests are in the way.

Just because Iran and Syria may recognize Assad's weaknesses doesn't necessarily mean that Assad recognizes his weaknesses.

Perhaps a revolution can overthrow autocratic despotism and profiteering or power-grabbing oppression, but it can never truly reform a manner of thinking; instead, new prejudices, just like the old ones they replace, will serve as a leash for the great unthinking mass.

People will endure their tyrants for years, but they tear their deliverers to pieces if a millennium is not created immediately.

I've been so mistreated by male authority in my life that I had a terrible time in my marriage trying to be a submissive wife. I wanted to rule the roost in everything. And it wasn't even really that I was rebellious; I was afraid of being hurt. And I think that a lot of people that choose these alternative lifestyles, I think it's because they've been hurt somewhere along the line very badly.

In revolutionary times the rich are always the people who are most afraid.

The integrity of China was more important than [the people] in Tiananmen Square.

All political power comes from the barrel of either guns, pussy, or opium pipes, and people seem to like it that way.

Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress?

If we look at history, we will see that regimes which persecute [their people] do not remain standing.

Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people.

There are a group of people who are managing the world to their advantage and who just look to the rest of us as people who will buy their products and fund their salaries.

One question that people always ask at home is never asked here: "What happened to Communism in Russia?" Everybody yawns when a visitor brings it up, because the answer is so obvious to every Russian. The answer is that there never was Communism in Russia; there were only communists.

In early times, it was easier to control a million people than to kill a million. Today, it is infinitely easier to to kill a million people than to control a million.

Dictatorial regimes often manage to keep themselves in power because they are recognized by foreigners as representing the state and its people, and therefore as entitled to sell the country's natural resources and to borrow money in its people's name. These privileges conferred by foreigners keep autocrats in power despite the fact that they were not elected and do not rule in the interest of the population.

O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if, to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people! Your arms, wherewith you could defend yourselves, are gone.

Our political leaders often talk about Russia taking an independent path, but they like to live like people in the West.