Putin’s War Will Lead To His Ultimate Demise

The longer the war prolongs, the less likely Putin is to prevail

Russia’s undeterred war in Ukraine and the Western reaction to it have shown Vladimir Putin that the condition of democracy in Europe, and much of the world, is stronger than he believes. President Vladimir Putin’s vast craving for power is likely a critical weakness to the Russian President. Those close to him appear to be too afraid to tell him the truth, or question his motives or strategies, regarding Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

There is no doubt that President Putin has ridden this second Chechnya conflict from relative obscurity to a place of ultimate administrative authority within Russia. Appeasers in Europe, like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Belarus President Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko, need to be reminded of the Russia story and Vladimir Putin’s perception that Russia is superior just over Ukraine but over the West.

Many Russians are still skeptical of Vladimir Putin’s motivations, and many Russian governments and Parliament members express concerns over the costs this reunification will impose on Russia’s economy. With the invasion, Russia has faced crippling sanctions from the West and European Union, which have set the economy back years.

Putin’s increased focus on the Kremlin-controlled monolithic narrative about what the Soviet Union was, meaning he will continue to deny the full complexity of its history, shaping the collective memory via propaganda, mass media, and officially sanctioned books. Yet the story of Vladimir Putin as an unforgiving businessman has not been forgotten by older Russians, who still hold lingering bitter memories of Boris Yeltsin’s chaotic, troubled years.

At that time, the oligarchic clique accumulated huge assets via shady privatizations, robbing Russia’s industrial heritage of the Soviet Union. Putin’s Russia is one the history books will not be kind to unless he has already had it written. Like all evil dictators, their empires will eventually fall. After all the chaos and destruction, it will take a leader adamant not to repeat the past to rebuild the country.