From the Thirst of Power to Moral Impoverishment

The article is devoted to the problems of political leadership and its moral and value aspects. Some technologies of creating of a political leader image and moral assessment of his activities in terms of impact on public consciousness are analyzed. The need to take into account certain difficulties in studying the phenomenon of political leadership, namely the lack of a comprehensive theory of political leadership, institutional, behavioral, value, historical, economic, moral factors, as well as significant changes in political leaders’ use of information and communication technologies is emphasized. The author believes that in order to create and establish their positive image of power, political leaders are willing to use certain archetypes, including the archetype of the Hero. At the same time, political myths the main characters of which are heroes such as savior, creator, messiah and others are gaining popularity. The political image of putin as an antihero, a trickster is analyzed in terms of morality and universal values. In the current conditions of war, putin and putin’s russia are seen as a World Evil, thus increasing the responsibility not only of political leaders, but also of every single citizen. Emphasis is placed on the emergence of a new term “rashism” (simplification from “russian fascism”), which is gradually becoming a political ideology of putin’s russia. Examples of putin’s using of so-called gaslighting, such as spreading false information, denying obvious arguments and facts, accusing everyone of lying, and so on, are considered. The problems to be solved in Ukraine after the war with russia are outlined.