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Via Politico:

The state-run media in Russia is allowing President Vladimir Putin to get away with actions that aren’t in his country’s best interests, President Barack Obama says in an interview with VICE.

“The Russian economy is taking a hammer blow because of their incursions into Ukraine. It’s terrible for the future of Russia. But because ordinary Russians aren’t getting good information, there’s no check on what Putin may do,” Obama said in an interview set to air Friday on HBO, obtained by POLITICO.

“We’re raising the costs of what he’s doing in Ukraine to incredibly high levels, where rationally they would do something different,” the president continued. “But he’s not necessarily operating based on those cost-benefit analyses because right now, he’s still popular.”

The “multiplicity of voices” in U.S. media prevents American presidents from getting away with overstepping their bounds, he added.

“Obviously, if there was state-run media in the United States, whoever the president was would have the ability to make whatever screwy policies they had look good as well,” Obama said.