Putin, Erdogan, and Xi on point of no return - the more autocratic their rule, the more they have to lose

The leaders of Russia, Turkey, and China have cast off quasi democratic checks and balances, but the more autocratic their rule, the more they have to lose, writes Nina L Khrushcheva

EARLIER this year, when Russian president, Vladimir Putin, announced that he was forming a 400,000-man national guard that would report only to him, many Russians wondered why it was needed.

After all, Russia’s army was supposedly back: Putin had equipped it with new toys, and had even arranged for two small wars — in Georgia, in 2008, and in Ukraine, starting in 2014 — to prove it.