Unfortunately modern technology has given the average person a lot more power in terms of communication. So gone are the days where you could eradicate a few troublesome peasants & bury their bodies in their backyard frozen wasteland, without too much fuss. No one would've missed them in the past - their relatives would've thought that the telephone lines were down again because of heavy snowfall in their remote location.
But, alas, modern technology has changed all that & The Masses really are masses! These days if you piss off a bunch of people, you piss off their friends, relatives, Facebook friends, blog followers, twitter followers & basically anyone who reads their online complaints (or hears about their struggles) & agrees with them.
This makes it really difficult to operate as normal if you're a dictator.
Take everyone's favourite former KGB agent: Vladimir Putin - the former General Secretary of the United Russia, former Prime Minister of Russia, former Chairman of United Russia, former Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus and of course, the current & long-serving President of Russia.
Busy man.
Since his 'election' this year, which has been dogged by controversy, many Russians in Moscow have publicly opposed his re-election, by holding protests. Putin has reacted to these with either a tough show of force, law changes, pretending nothing has happened or blaming it all on American politicians.
It seems like he hasn't been able to make up his mind on how to deal with this in a modern world. With his Tough Guy image & KGB history, he probably longs for the glory days where he could just kill everyone who opposed him & keep their friends and relatives quiet with threats.
Now he has to deal with growing support for the opposition & worldwide interest. And unfortunately for Putin, the opposition is gathering momentum as more & more people join the protests in Moscow. His camp conveniently keep on underestimating the numbers, downplaying the momentum that is gathering against him. But the whole Pussy Riot incident has just brought more attention to the opposition & more support.
So how should a modern day dictator react? Like other modern day dictators have - by cutting off internet & mobile services to the public. As opposition against Putin increases, I expect to see the Russian government clamping down on ISPs & mobile service companies.
But of course, that'll only serve to aggravate things further...
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