There are usually several signs when state leaders intend to stay in power, if not forever, then at least long enough to secure wealth and influence for their descendants.
They undermine checks and balances, manipulate freedom of the media, weaken the rule of law, suppress civil society, and distract population by artificially manufactured crises or polarising...
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Anton Shekhovtsov is director of the Centre for Democratic Integrity in Vienna, visiting professor at the Central European University, and author of three books: New Radical Rightwing Parties in European Democracies (2011), Russia and the Western Far-Right: Tango Noir (2017), and Russian Political Warfare (2023).