The Putin regime’s aversion to complexity has intensified over time, moving from the relatively innocuous belief that simplicity translates into clarity, manageability, predictability, and safety, to the dangerous conclusion that complexity itself – inherently unpredictable and often impenetrable – is a threat. Complex or convoluted ideas and institutions, viewed as a product of forceful punditry, deliberately produced by the enemy to baffle and hurt Russia, are to be quashed at all costs.