As Russia’s war against Ukraine drags on into its 11th month and as its battlefield losses mount, cracks are becoming increasingly evident in the centralized top-down political system that Vladimir Putin has built.
A schism is emerging between those in the elite who want Putin to stop the military onslaught and those who insist he must escalate further. And with Putin caught in the middle between these two factions, he is increasingly pleasing neither of them.
Additionally, mainstays of the Russian political calendar like Putin’s annual State-of-the-Nation speech and his annual marathon press conference have been abruptly canceled.
So will 2023 be the year that Putin’s war in Ukraine comes home and destabilizes his authoritarian political system? On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Russian opposition leader Vladimir Milov about how Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine is upending Russia’s domestic politics.
SHOW NOTES
You can access Vladimir Milov’s YouTube channel (in Russian) here.
An article by Andrei Kolesnikov, “Putin’s Stalin Phase,” referenced in the podcast, can be accessed here.
An article by Catherine Belton, “Putin, unaccustomed to losing, is increasingly isolated as war falters,” referenced in the podcast, can be accessed here.