
Extract the answer to the question from the following context.
Question: What was a consequence of his stranglehold on power?
Context: 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.

Sassou had to rely more on political repression and less on patronage
