I want to test the ability of students to read a passage and answer questions about it. Could you please come up with a good question for the passage "Sassou Nguesso aligned the country with the Eastern Bloc and signed a twenty-year friendship pact with the Soviet Union. Over the years, Sassou had to rely more on political repression and less on patronage to maintain his dictatorship."? 

How did Sassou operate during his course of rule?