M.Klimentyev / RIA Novosti

Vladimir Putin's Friday stroll down a deserted stone street in St. Petersburg unexpectedly became one of the most talked about topics of the weekend. The image was perceived as symbolic. The top of the vertical of power is lonely by definition - this is its strength and this is also its weakness.

Unlike Yeltsin and Gorbachev, Putin never earned popular support on the street, never entered into horizontal relations with the population, diligently maintaining vertical ones. The third term, which began with an unforgettable motorcade passing through a deserted Moscow, turned out to be a clear confirmation of the otherness of the supreme power. The ruler is alone, because he is the only one of his kind. Having separated himself from the decayed elite, Putin relies on the masses and on no one in particular. That is why he is forced to emphasize the image of a lonely ruler.

Putin is quite consistent in his line of loneliness. We hear that he has friends, but they are not those from whom he seeks support. On the contrary, these are people whom he has not "abandoned." Putin in the circle of friends is an incredible picture. In the circle of family too - and the recent divorce only confirmed this feeling.

The role of those in communication with whom the ruler relaxes, rejoices, draws strength, is consistently played by animals and nature. Warmth and humanity are conveyed by photo sessions with a tiger, a pike, dogs or Siberian cranes. This is how an extraordinary person lives, who has no equal among people - neither in the frame, nor on the political stage. Direct line, when for several hours the president wittily answers any questions, is not a dialogue with the people, but a demonstration of the supernatural abilities of the leader.

Plato, the founder of political philosophy, called the ideal state structure the rule of a perfect ruler, a divine sage who writes laws, and does not obey them. All other types of government are, in one way or another, distortions of this ideal model. The sacred ruler has no equal, he does not need advisers, his "political knowledge" is supernatural. But the same Plato admits that in the real world, in the absence of such a sage, the state must obey the laws. As soon as a ruler who claims the highest knowledge is subject to human passions, he inevitably turns into a tyrant, the worst of rulers.

In a sense, the transition from ideal to reality is happening before our eyes. By means of PR and television, political managers manage to create the image of the main sage-ruler. There are no funds for other politicians and officials, and they are not entitled to so much attention. Officials copy the model as best they can, and we receive countless attempts to portray a lonely, detached, sacred leader - in the Investigative Committee, in the department of the ministry, even in Russian embassies abroad.

From the Editor: Developing Plato