Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Failed Turkish Coup Holds Lessons for Putin

Last weekend's events in Turkey have some wondering if Putin is similarly vulnerable.

July 18, 2016 at 12:46 PM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

Staying power.
Photographer: Ivan Sekretarev/AFP/Getty Images

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The failed coup d'etat against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was avidly watched in Russia -- not just because Erdogan and his authoritarian twin, President Vladimir Putin, have recently restored relations after the downing of a Russian fighter jet by Turkey in November, but because many wondered if Putin himself could become the target of a coup attempt and if he could survive it.

QuickTake Turkey's Continental Divide