{"id":800416,"date":"2026-03-03T04:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/800416\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T04:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:09:18","slug":"why-khameneis-killing-hit-putin-where-it-hurts-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/800416\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Khamenei\u2019s killing hit Putin where it hurts \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThey showed the entire world how he was killed, covered in blood,\u201d Putin, visibly angry, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interfax.ru\/russia\/222049\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">said<\/a> during a televised press conference at the time. \u201cIs that democracy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In May 2012, not long after Gaddafi\u2019s overthrow, Putin returned to the presidency after a stint as prime minister. He took to the job on an apparent mission to break with the West and root out domestic dissent, which he accused of seeking to work with Russia\u2019s enemies to achieve regime change.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was precisely Gaddafi\u2019s death that became a turning point in Russian politics \u2014 both foreign and domestic,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/baunovhaus\/2017\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">writes<\/a> Alexander Baunov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center based in Berlin.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"792\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-91062110-1024x792.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1169253\"  \/>In May 2012, not long after Muammar Gaddafi\u2019s overthrow, Putin returned to the presidency after a stint as prime minister. | Mario Tama\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>That the U.S. and Europe would allow a global leader to be overthrown so brutally was seen by Putin, a former KGB agent, as \u201cthe height of treachery,\u201d Baunov said.<\/p>\n<p>With the passing of years, Putin has sunk into increasing isolation.<\/p>\n<p>During the Covid pandemic, foreign dignitaries and Russian officials alike were required to stay several meters away from the Russian president. Interactions with the public were, and still are, carefully choreographed.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThey showed the entire world how he was killed, covered in blood,\u201d Putin, visibly angry, said during a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7655],"tags":[14533,32,774,332,333,231032,335],"class_list":["post-800416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-russia","tag-ali-khamenei","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran","tag-russia","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-war-in-iran","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116163285310295377","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}