The legacy of the Russian tyrant, as he celebrates his 70th birthday tomorrow, will be a new “Time of Troubles” with a power vacuum in the heart of Moscow, said researcher Stepan Stepanenko.
Stepanenko added that Putin has “desperately sought acceptance and fame, but achieved fame and loneliness”.
And Russian home affairs expert Emily Ferris told the Daily Express that Vladimir Putin sees himself as a war against the West — not just for Russia, but for “all other” nations that oppose the West.
But he currently still enjoys the support of many of the Russian oligarchs who are helping him maintain his power.
Russian forces are currently suffering heavy casualties and are trying to evacuate their wounded amid a relentless advance by the Ukrainian army.
The partial mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Russians to fight in Ukraine – after the Kremlin military leadership lost hundreds of towns and villages – has sparked protests across Russia.
And critics are increasingly encouraged and openly criticize the Russian government on state television.
Stepan Stepanenko, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, said: “What remains of the world’s greatest country after the demise of its inglorious leader will also be the workings of a man desperate for acceptance and fame, but fame and reached loneliness.
“The destruction of national identity and the genocidal tendencies of the Chechen war still linger in the region, the abandonment of people at the time of COVID set the halo of Putin’s head and the call to send a generation of men to dying for a cause they don’t get has prepared the region for succession.”
Emily Ferris, a specialist in Russian internal affairs, said Vladimir Putin retains much of the support of the “elites” within Russian society because they allow him to earn billions of pounds and maintain the conditions to effectively negotiate huge amounts of money. to rule areas. numerous industries.
She said Vladimir Putin is “able” to change his strategy and acknowledge concerns within Russian society, while turning the blame away from himself.
Putin is becoming increasingly indecisive and unable to impose his authority as the Russian invasion of Ukraine crumbles, as Moscow’s forces advance in the northeast and savagely attack Ukraine in the south.
Former KGB agent Vladimir Putin first became president of Russia in 2000 and remained in power until 2008. He was succeeded by one of his closest allies, Dmitry Medvedev, for four years before returning to power and has always been in remained in the Kremlin. ever since.
Putin spent 16 years as a foreign intelligence officer for the KGB and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, before resigning in 1991 to embark on a political career in Saint Petersburg.
He moved to Moscow in 1996 to join the government of President Boris Yeltsin.
He was briefly Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Secretary of the Security Council before being appointed Prime Minister in August 1999.
Emily Ferris, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, says, “we don’t really see a split between the elite close to him.”
“He has portrayed himself as the vanguard of a set of values that he believes represent Russia — the history, the culture, the language.”
“He sees the war in Ukraine as part of a much larger war, not just between Russia and the West, but between the values of all countries that oppose the West.”