JRL NEWSWATCH: “What Is Really Going on in the Kremlin?” – Kyiv Post/ Anders Åslund
“… Based on current evidence, I would be surprised if [Putin] can rule Russia until the end of this year. … [T]he Kremlin must be … panic[king] … impos[ing] … Stalinist … censorship …. Putin’s war in Ukraine is an outstanding failure for which he is guilty … [h]is aim … too grand and arrogant, … his resources … too meagre. … [H]e decided to command the war himself, just like Tsar Nicholas II and … Hitler, demonstrating [military] ignorance …. [T]he Russian military has been stolen empty by everybody from Putin, to … Shoigu … Prigozhin … Chemezov and down the line. Putin … has isolated himself with two nutcases – Yuri Kovalchuk … and Nikolai Patrushev …. The soft consensus expects a GDP fall of only 10%. My guess is 20%. … However incompetent the Russian military may be, deep down they understand that Putin embarked on a conquest of madness ….”
Adding to the unfolding mix of developments have been the deaths of top businessmen and their families.
“… One of the most mysterious and odious parts of this story is that at least eight top Russian businessmen in the Gazprom, Gazprombank and Novatek sphere have committed suicide after first having stabbed their families to death. These look like obvious FSB murders, rumored to be based on Putin’s complaints about FSB leaks to the U.S. …”