Source: The American Conservative
by Leonid Ragozin
“As the liberal Yabloko party got dropped from the ballot, a chorus of analysts came up with predictable claims that Putin increasingly fears his own people. Ukrainian deep strikes and Western sanctions, the story goes, have forced him to tighten the screws to try to prevent social unrest. Also predictably, another story in the hackneyed ‘Russia is finished’ genre is making headlines: Russia’s major state-run bank VEB has fired its chief economist Andrey Klepach for making dark predictions of the country’s future. One can only pity the professional doomsayers for the shortage of really inspiring stories as they try—for the umpteenth time—to sell the idea that Ukraine should suffer for just a little while longer in hopes of Russian collapse.” (08/21/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/how-western-belligerence-helps-putin-hold-onto-power/