Background: 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.
Question: What was an important tool of the Sassou government?
Answer:<extra_id_0>.
<extra_id_0> political repression<extra_id_1>