Gleb Pavlovsky, Putin adviser who turned critic
Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Soviet dissident who was sent into exile and then reinvented himself as a political spinmeister in post-Cold War Russia, helping craft the public image of President Vladimir Putin before breaking ties and decrying Putin’s authoritarian grip, died Feb. 27 at a Moscow hospice center. He was 71.
A statement by Pavlovsky’s family did not give a cause.
Many analogies were used to describe Pavlovsky’s trajectory from Kremlin adviser to oracle-like outsider. He was called Putin’s version of GOP uber-strategist Karl Rove, trying to frame Putin’s heavy-handed rule as necessary in troubled times and being part of the Kremlin team during macho memes such as a shirtless Putin in the wilds.
Pavlovsky was later portrayed as a penitent who was dismayed at the political system he helped create.
He saw himself somewhere in between. Pavlovsky felt that Putin, a former KGB operative, had the right mix of old-school gravitas and digital-age potential to lead Russia after the wild ride of the 1990s amid the wreckage of the Soviet Union.
Guide to Putin’s thinking
After turning against Putin in 2011 over moves to keep him in power, Pavlovsky channeled his regret. He became a guide into Putin’s mind. In interviews and essays with international outlets, Pavlovsky sought to explain Putin — including his paranoia that drives crackdowns on opposition in Russia and his nostalgia for the Soviet empire that led to war in Ukraine.
“It’s like those who work on designing a weapon, ”Pavlovsky said in 2012, describing his onetime role in boosting Putin’s image and policies. “These weapons can end up in the wrong hands or be used the wrong way. Are you responsible because you made the weapon?”
Even as Putin systematically targeted his critics — including the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny — Pavlovsky knew what lines not to cross. He was able to remain active with foreign journalists and keep his own blog going because he did not openly challenge Putin. Instead, he analyzed what made Putin tick and why his cult of personality, which Pavlovsky helped make, had such staying power.
Pavlovsky sometimes called Putin’s Russia a “jazz state” where rules and goals are in a constant state of improvisation. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year was a miscalculation that left Putin appearing weak and with shrinking options, he said.
“The previous Putin would not have done this,” Pavlovsky said shortly after the invasion. “He was a very sane-thinking person. But this has all vanished now. He has an obsession about Ukraine that he didn’t previously have. He is reacting now to the pictures in his own head.”
Putin and Mr. Pavlovsky were a Kremlin odd couple. While Putin was deep in the Soviet fold in the 1980s, Pavlovsky spent three years in internal exile in the sub-Arctic Komi Republic after conviction for anti-Soviet activities that included links to publications calling for political reforms.