An anti-Semite like his father, and a hater of Asians to boot, Nicholas the Second developed the bad habit of listening only to those people he thought worthy, his wife Alexandra and the circle of court flatterers.
You could even just cut to the chase and call the person themselves a placebo, which, according to the OED, meant " a flatterer, a sycophant, [or] a parasite."
Indians hear such criticisms less often because Mr Modi has cowed the press, showering bounty on flatterers while starving, controlling and bullying critics.
In one of my translations of Aeryan, the historian writing about Aristobulus said he's known to be part of a group of people around Alexander called the flatterers.
" I understand, " said Stanislas, " it's like the crow who is silly enough to let his cheese fall and be taken by the fox who has been playing the flatterer" .