JRL NEWSWATCH: “Isolated, out of touch, but clinging on: how Russians see Putin” – The Sunday Times (UK)

“A year on from the disastrous invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin could be just one crisis away from collapse.”

“… Putin is notorious for asking Russian historians how he will be judged a hundred years hence. With his invasion of Ukraine, he has ensured that he will be assessed a failure, an example of the way hubris can devour any initial successes. Had Putin chosen to step down … in 2008, it is likely he would be remembered as someone who dragged Russia back from the brink of collapse, even if often by brutal methods. … Although there is no real likelihood that the country will fragment, the stability that allowed all kinds of genuinely positive developments in Putin’s early reign, from the growth of grassroots political activism to the rise of a middle class, are all under threat thanks to the war and the totalitarian way the Kremlin is trying to respond … on the home front. … Although there is little likelihood of Russia breaking apart, 1990s-style chaos is not impossible. As Putin may also discover, a state-maker may prove a state-breaker, too.”

Click here for: “Isolated, out of touch, but clinging on: how Russians see Putin; A year on from the disastrous invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin could be just one crisis away from collapse” – The Sunday Times (UK)/ Mark Galeotti