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Vladimir Putin is losing his grip on Russia
21–30 of 73 posts
Re: Vladimir Putin is losing his grip on Russia
#22I've heard this about a hundred times over the years.
I think the same every time I read this, but at one point it has to give, right? Nothing is going well and economically the population is feeling it. I imagine this can’t go on much longer.
>I think the same every time I read this, but at one point it has to give, right?
If you repeat this same news every time, then you'll eventually be right, yes.
Re: Vladimir Putin is losing his grip on Russia
#23Re: Vladimir Putin is losing his grip on Russia
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anecdotally, the people I know who recently visited Moscow and St Petersburg claim they're not seeing significant struggle, and definitely not the 'risk your life for violent revolution' type of issues.
Moscow and St Petersburg will be the absolute last places where you will see people struggle precisely because Putin knows it's important to keep those cities prosperous even if it's at the cost of people living outside of the major cities.
Sure, but that's already 20% of population counting metro area. Add other well off areas, university towns, upper class in small towns, etc. and it doesn't seem to be looking super bad in the short term for them.
Re: Vladimir Putin is losing his grip on Russia
#25I've heard this about a hundred times over the years.
The mistake that we seem to see repeatedly is blindness to adaptation. Russia's economy would have collapsed had the Russian government carried on exactly as things were before sanctions. No economy will really truly collapse while the people in it need an economy: they will make changes.
At some point those changes might include stopping the war and getting rid of Putin.
I don't think all commentators fall into this trap, but more thoughtful predictions get overwhelmed by those expousing more impactful ideas.
It does seem that Putin has lost something recently, a grip on the hearts and minds of a subset of Russians that previously backed him come what may. The war has been quite static this year, Russia still losing a lot of men, and hardening domestic policy on Internet use. I doubt it's enough for violent protests.
Re: Vladimir Putin is losing his grip on Russia
#26Age and health issues can erode someone's power. But news like this are a dime a dozen. They might be right but this is propaganda 101. Eventually the prediction comes true and the news outlet can pin a medal to their chest.
Every once in a while they get to throw one about the enemy or any world leader out into the world and see if it sticks. Here's the Economist being super worried about Xi's grip on power [1].
[1] https://www.economist.com/china/2025/07/20/xi-jinping-is-gro...
Re: Vladimir Putin is losing his grip on Russia
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anecdotally, the people I know who recently visited Moscow and St Petersburg claim they're not seeing significant struggle, and definitely not the 'risk your life for violent revolution' type of issues.
Moscow and St Petersburg will be the absolute last places where you will see people struggle precisely because Putin knows it's important to keep those cities prosperous even if it's at the cost of people living outside of the major cities.
The enlistment bonuses tell that story: from St Petersburg, you get 10x the bonus compared to Dagestan.
Re: Vladimir Putin is losing his grip on Russia
#28[flagged]
In this hypothetical scenario, who gets to decide how the body double should act or what decisions he takes? And Why wouldn't they just take the power themselves?
Re: Vladimir Putin is losing his grip on Russia
#29I've heard this about a hundred times over the years.
The mistake that we seem to see repeatedly is blindness to adaptation. Russia's economy would have collapsed had the Russian government carried on exactly as things were before sanctions. No economy will really truly collapse while the people in it need an economy: they will make changes. At some point those changes might include stopping the war and getting rid of Putin. I don't think all commentators fall into this…
I agree with you that war can easily become unpopular and turn people against their government. But is there any country, whose economy has been sanctioned by the foreigners and crippled by it, where the people then decided to overthrow their government? As far as I know my history, no. Foreign sanctions easily give every country an easy excuse to blame all economic problems on the foreigners. In every instance, they've actually united nations against their "common" enemy (i.e. the foreign sanctioner). They also provide an excuse to stifle criticism using state powers as any criticism on the government handling of the economy can be conveniently labelled as speaking the language of the "enemy" and / or supporting the "enemy".
While I understand that the true purpose of sanctions is to weaken a country's military, sometimes I do wonder if it is a war crime as it also ends up effectively "punishing the people".
Re: Vladimir Putin is losing his grip on Russia
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the same every time I read this, but at one point it has to give, right? Nothing is going well and economically the population is feeling it. I imagine this can’t go on much longer.
Anecdotally, the people I know who recently visited Moscow and St Petersburg claim they're not seeing significant struggle, and definitely not the 'risk your life for violent revolution' type of issues.
Because they are rich people who are in the rich parts of the richest cities. I’m sure if you walked the streets of Moscow in 1988 you wouldn’t see any significant struggle among the elite.