clone hero through the fire and the flames

'However, the people need to be politicised and this is the task for the Russian opposition groups. 'One way or another, the threats to Putin's regime can only come from Russian citizens: deteriorating living conditions can topple the equilibrium within the country, elevating the costs of maintaining the status quo above the costs of protest. 'The war of aggression against Ukraine is a constant source of uncertainty that could undermine the status quo at any moment.

In fact, even an unfavourable outcome in Ukraine may not be enough to see Mr Putin dispatched.

'A resolution of the war in Putin's favour could fossilise the regime until the dictator dies.' 'Putin's dictatorship is now not threatened by either a coup or a protest,' Turchenko writes. It's an idea taken up by Mikhail Turchenko, an expert in Russian political science, in an essay published on Riddle Russia.įor Turchenko, the way Mr Putin navigated the mutiny - with Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin failing to garner support of the elites and being about-turned with relatively little bloodshed - shows seismic change is not afoot in the Kremlin. Rumours of his ill-health make for clickable headlines, and while he is unlikely to lose power electorally (as our Moscow correspondent Diana Magnay explains here), this summer's failed mutiny gave credence to the idea that he could one day be forcibly removed. One of the most intriguing aspects of this conflict is what will become of Vladimir Putin.

Clone hero through the fire and the flames