Matt Shoemaker | Source | Former Intelligence Officer at Defense Intelligence Agency

"Heavy is the head that wears the crown." Shakespeare's turn of phrases and memorable imagery certainly ring true for Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping. Over the past month, numerous shakeups and disappearances of high level party and government ministers sheds light on the extraordinarily murky and mysterious backdoor dealings of the Chinese Communist Party. Fear, suspicion, and backstabbing are standard within the communist party in China at all levels--even more so at its pinnacle. Indeed, one feature that seems to be common amongst all communist governments is the intense paranoia that power is a mere breath from slipping away.

Mr Shoemaker explained: "After Wagner's rebellion last month, Putin's image of the strong man, an image he's spent over two decades crafting, is crumbling.

"It also shows that the Kremlin does not know its own country. Put another way, the government in Russia is only strong on tv. In reality, however, it is as rotten as the barracks in Russian occupied Ukraine."

"Vladimir Putin, the man who would have held the place of Premier or Tsar in former times, is indeed a controversial figure. To some in the West, he will always be the former KGB Lieutenant Colonel: a maniac of ferocious genius, the repository, and expression of the most virulent hatreds that have corroded the human spirit. To many of his people in Russia, however, his strength and leadership saved them from international derision and internal ruin."