[gotwaz]

My point was the regime may collapse for other reasons. Just like the USSR. There was no dearth of plans there and no lack of effort of US trying to destablize them.

[simmerup]

Didn’t the USSR collapse because Gorbachev was an idealist who actually wanted the best for his country

The modern autocracies barely even pay lip service to such ideas

[AnimalMuppet]

In fairness, the USSR autocrats before Gorbachev barely paid lip service to it too...

[simmerup]

That's fair, it's unfortunate for them that they didn't consider that Gorbachev was being earnest when he spouted the party line