If rumors are true, he may die of cancer fairly soon. Or perhaps a coup will end his life. Maybe he’ll be fine and hold onto power for a few more years.
But the question is what will happen to Russia after Putin goes and as the Ukraine debacle continues to cause grave problems for Russia?
Will power be handed over easily to another hardliner in the Kremlin and will business continue as usual? Or are we starting to see the breakdown of the Russian State in full?
Kremlin power struggles for who takes over from Putin, battles between powerful oligarchs, insurrections, civil war, breakaway ethnic regions, fights over who controls the oil and nuclear weapons, economic collapse. These are all possibilities.
Its hard to imagine a rosy future after Putin- and much more likely to imagine a dire and dangerous future for Russia and its people. and that will have implications for the whole world.
Yugoslavia’s Marshall Tito was rational, but when he was gone, it fell apart soon after. With a leader like Putin, or Tito, there is no real heir apparent to hold the system together. The Far East and Caucus regions are not ethnic Russian and will spin off in short order when he is gone. And after this fight with Ukraine, win or lose, the ethnic Russian people will have no stomach to even try to stop them.
I think you underestimate the strength and power of the Russian oligarchy to protect their interests. When Putin is gone, they will find a replacement.
The fact that he hasn’t been taken out by a Russian IMO is a display that he’ll be replaced and that replacement will do so for the good of themselves, not Russia.
Dude definitely looks sick. Lots of reports of various illnesses from multiple sources- Im sure something is going on. whether its imminently fatal tho? Who knows…
Russia has always been ruled by an autocracy. Its hard to imagine them “evolving”. Sadly I envision separatist ethnic regions and a revolving gang of Kremlin insiders desperately trying to put down rebellions. Really it would be like a continuation of the Soviet empire falling apart. All I hope for is sane leadership that knows how to handle those nukes.
He definitely has something going on with his hands. When sitting still, he always appears to have to hold onto something solid … presumably to keep them from moving uncontrollably.
Yeah I assume Parkinsons. And it looks fairly advanced. And there have been lots of cancer docs hanging around and rumors of that so I wouldnt be surprised. The real fear is that he is dying and has nothing to lose so why not shoot off a few nukes or a few hundred because… Russia! L’etat c’est moi!
If you mean giving military aid to Ukraine- almost all of the GOP supports that. If you mean allowing Finland and Sweden into NATO- Id be surprised if more that one or two GOP congressmen would not support that.
OK. This is about as bipartisan as it gets in terms of support for Ukraine and expanding NATO. I know there’s a number of you here who disagree with that view. I do understand that the stakes are extraordinarily high but I think the West will continue to to call Putin’s nuke bluff without going to extraordinary measures (putting NATO boots on the ground, invading Russian territory, etc.)
