Russians are beginning to imagine a future without Vladimir Putin, according to a former senior Kremlin official who has broken ranks in a rare anonymous account of the mood inside Russia's ruling class.
A former senior Kremlin official says Russians are beginning to imagine a future without Vladimir Putin, as elites quietly distance themselves, inflation bites, and the state seizes billions in private assets.Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a wreath-laying ceremony after the 2021 Victory Day parade in Moscow.Russians are beginning to imagine a future without Vladimir Putin, according to a former senior Kremlin official who has broken ranks in a rare anonymous account of the mood inside Russia's ruling class. Writing in a recent op-ed published by The Economist, the former official describes a country whose elites, regional governors and business leaders have subtly but unmistakably stopped associating themselves with the president's decisions, a shift the author says reflects a growing recognition that Putin has driven Russia into a dead end.The Telling Language Shift Inside the KremlinThe clearest signal of elite disillusionment, according to the former official, is linguistic. Senior figures in Moscow have quietly stopped using the first person plural when discussing the president's actions. Where they once said "we," they now say "he," a small grammatical adjustment that carries considerable political weight in a system built on the performance of solidarity.That shift took hold last spring, the former official noted, though it does not mean a rebellion is imminent. The state continues to hold the key instruments of repression and fear firmly in its hands.A Regime That Has Stopped Selling a VisionWhat has changed, the former official argues, is that the Kremlin has abandoned any attempt to sell Russians a coherent story about national restoration or modernisation. The country is haemorrhaging lives and resources on the battlefields of Ukraine, and the government is offering nothing in return by way of a unifying narrative."The irony is that Mr. Putin started the war to preserve power and the system he has created," the official wrote. "Now, for the first time since the conflict began, Russians are starting to imagine a future without him."Economic Pressure Mounts as War Costs BiteThe war's economic consequences have compounded the political disillusionment. Russians are contending with rising inflation, heavier tax burdens, deteriorating infrastructure, tightened censorship and a cascade of new social restrictions. High inflation has forced interest rates to remain elevated, straining companies and borrowers struggling to service their debts. Defaults have risen, and warnings of a broader financial crisis have grown louder.Elites Lose Wealth, Freedom and Western ProtectionRussia's business class, once able to shelter assets under Western legal frameworks and move freely between countries, has found itself trapped and increasingly exposed. Travel bans have confined elites to Russia, and the protections that once secured their wealth abroad have evaporated.The former official estimated that the state has seized approximately $60 billion in assets from private businessmen over the past three years, through outright nationalisation or redistribution to regime loyalists."It is not that the elites have suddenly discovered a taste for the rule of law or democracy," the op-ed said. "But even those loyal to the regime crave rules and institutions that can resolve conflicts fairly."Russia's Identity Crisis on the World StageBeyond its borders, Russia faces a different kind of problem. As the rules-based international order weakens, the country has less room to exploit institutions such as the United Nations Security Council to its advantage. And as the West itself declines in influence, Russia loses the adversary against which it has long defined itself, creating what the former official describes as an identity crisis.The Social Contract Has CollapsedInside Russia, the informal arrangement that once underpinned public acquiescence has broken down entirely. For years, the Kremlin tolerated citizens living largely private liv
Discussion (0)