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Only four or five people knew
His innermost circle of advisors had narrowed considerably over the years, and in some ways that circle is his main audience. The Russian military effort was badly bungled early on, partly because the planning that would normally be assumed had not been done.
Some of those advisors held harder views than he did. Others had learned long ago that it wasn't career enhancing to challenge his judgments. There is not much of a feedback loop and not much in the way of people willing to question him.
That differs from what William Burns saw in 2005 to 2008, when there were still people willing to question Putin, and he would occasionally even listen to them.
Why do leaders end up with yes-men?
Psychologist Irving Janis described a pattern he called groupthink in his 1972 book Victims of Groupthink. In tight groups, the wish for harmony and loyalty pushes members to hold back doubts. Janis studied decisions such as the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, planned by a small circle of Kennedy advisers. He argued that groups with strong leaders, little outside input, and high stress were the most prone to it.
Why is honest advice scarce in autocracies?
Economist Ronald Wintrobe described what he called the dictator's dilemma in his 1998 book The Political Economy of Dictatorship. A ruler who punishes opponents makes subordinates afraid to tell the truth, so the ruler cannot tell loyalty from fear. The more power is concentrated, the less reliable the information that reaches the top. Wintrobe's work compares how dictatorships balance repression against the need to know what is happening.
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