Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently thought he could send his troops marching into Ukraine and have everything be over in a matter of days or weeks. That obviously didn’t happen, and not only are there very frivolous outcomes involving Putin’s Botox supply, but the conflict has caused an untold amount of lost lives so far. All the while, an infuriated Putin has reportedly blamed those around him for his dismal war failures, and that’s led to him firing over 100 FSB Secret Agents. Hackers also ruined Putin’s silly parade to celebrate war victory (although Russia is losing), and let’s just say that Putin’s inner circle has a lot of reasons to worry.
To that end, independent news outlet Meduza (which operates under the slogan “The Real Russia”) reports that there’s plenty of talk (from “officials [who] are increasingly fed up with Putin personally”) on how to push Putin out and install a successor. Via The Daily Beast, those around Putin are maneuvering carefully, and “[i]t’s not about them wanting to prepare a plot and overthrow Putin right now. But there is an understanding, or a desire, that in the fairly foreseeable future he will not run the country.”
The situation is obviously a complicated one, given that Russia’s in economic tatters due to levied sanctions and nations around the globe refusing to do business with them, given what Putin’s doing in Ukraine. Still, as The Daily Beast relates, “Putin himself is still willfully blind, insisting that the country’s growing economic problems have nothing to do with the war.” There’s also the matter of his rumored health issues and possible terminal illness, all of which could provide an entry point to give Putin the heave out of office.
Again, it’s clear that no immediate action is planned from Putin’s inner circle. Yet the conversations do provide an interesting window on how Russian officials are viewing the ongoing disaster unfolding around them, and how the struggling nation wants to position itself in the months and years to come.
(Via The Daily Beast)