Ehemaliger hochrangiger russischer Beamter gibt zu, dass das Land über Putin hinweg ist und sich „eine Zukunft ohne ihn vorstellen kann“ – selbst Eliten gehen auf Kaution, da der Kreml ihre Vermögenswerte beschlagnahmt

Russians are starting to acknowledge that President Vladimir Putin has led the country to a dead end and can’t shape its future, according to a former senior official in the Kremlin.

In a recent Economist op-ed authored anonymously, the former official pointed out that fellow government peers in Moscow, regional governors and businessmen have stopped using the first person plural when describing Putin’s actions.

In other words, Russia’s elites found a subtle way to no longer express solidarity with Putin, describing what “he” does rather than what “we” do.

That shift took place last spring, but does not signal a rebellion is imminent, the former official added, as the state still controls key levers of repression and fear.

At the same time, the regime has stopped bothering to sell a narrative of national restoration or modernization to the rest of the country, which is losing enormous amounts of blood and treasure in the battlefields of Ukraine.

“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.”

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: [https://fortune.com/2026/05/16/russian-regime-economy-putin-future-inflation-ukraine-war-oligarchs-asset-seizures/?utm_source=reddit/](https://fortune.com/2026/05/16/russian-regime-economy-putin-future-inflation-ukraine-war-oligarchs-asset-seizures/?utm_source=reddit/)

Funny, innit. The Russian people were fine with all the pointless slaughter but then they lost internet access. A step too far.

I watched all the videos of the Muscovites watching Ukranian drones fly over their homes. I watched them freaking the fuck out. They didn’t give a single shit until it was them. A whole country of human beings without an ounce of compassion between them.

Edit: Apologies: Many, brave, Russians did care. They’re in jail or fell out of a window.

I do hope that those which would have stood behind genocide dont get a free pass just because its not going how they planned and now all of a sudden they act like they arent a part of it.

Even if he escapes justice, he will be rembered as a failure by all sides in the end. He had almost 3 decades to build something and only destroyed.

>…the regime has stopped bothering to sell a narrative of national restoration or modernization to the rest of the country, which is losing enormous amounts of blood and treasure in the battlefields of Ukraine.

It’s crazy to think that the only nation that had a net positive gain from this entire war, in terms of material gain and national prestige, was ***North Korea***

All they had to do was prolong Moscow’s grinding defeat by sending a few thousand men and millions of old munitions that would’ve simply sat rotting in a North Korean warehouse. Russia paid them enough money to boost their GDP, enough energy to consistently light up NK metro areas, drone tech for NK to start their *own* drone program – they even tried sliding NK some nuclear reactors that were intercepted and sunk before they could even leave Europe.

Meanwhile, Russia’s sliding backwards into having their own capital being hit – 5 years into its 3-Day SMO – they’re struggling to keep their own energy infrastructure running due to the same Ukrainian strikes, and lost any major global influence that they had with the fall of Assad and Wagner/Africa Corps 

And just how much Russians have done to stop Putin?

damn it, this worked every time before >.<
*^(-putana who could’ve retired happily as literal fat cat czar.)*