-
He is loaded. He will be rich until the end of his days, doesn't matter what the west do.
That is something I have always wondered though, he is suspected to be the wealthiest man in the world but can he ever retire and enjoy it? Can any authoritarian/ semi-authoritarian leader ever step down and not expect to be bumped off once they have lost control of the all military and security forces. Imagine his options are limited to forever paying someone like Wagner Group to protect him or hope somewhere like Saudi or UAE let him retire there but neither allow for much freedom. And if you don't fancy those options and decide you will die in office, I guess it allows you to take different types of decisions.
greentricky-
Can any authoritarian/ semi-authoritarian leader ever step down and not expect to be bumped off
Don't have a link now, soz, but the Economist suggested some years ago that he can't. Plenty of pissed off small time gangsters and businessmen out there. People who were this close to making it big before Putin and his inner circle cut them short and left them hanging in a forever limbo of not-quite-oligarch but not quite a failure either.
-
When I watched the Alexei Navalny documentary about Putins' massive villa I kept on having somewhat similar thoughts - he's so loaded already, has way more than he can spend on anything, pretty much even toilet brushes are made of gold in that villa - why can't he just keep status quo and enjoy it?
These wars are to boost his ratings, I get it, but it doesn't feel like he's losing grip on power anytime soon. All the oligarchs would probably be interested in keeping the status quo.
As of dictators retiring - not sure but it struck me a little bit that Gorbachev and Yeltsin who were prominent figures of the Soviet Union were (edit - sorry, Yeltsin is no longer alive) still alive and just casually chill somewhere in Russia. They probably were not as evil as their predecessors but they were still strongly involved with the whole evil empire.
Yeltsin practically handed power to Putin and everyone supported him back then because they thought it's finally a leader that will lead them to bright future.
P.S. this is the documentary by Alexei Navalny about Putins' villa for the ones who haven't seen it and got time. English subtitles and dubbed versions are also available https://youtu.be/ipAnwilMncI
starfish&coffee
dau
He has lost already. I believe now it's just about saving face and going back to his palace. He is loaded. He will be rich until the end of his days, doesn't matter what the west do.
As of nuclear stuff - I don't believe it. It's just a desperate flex, nothing more. Kyiv is so close to their own borders - both Russian and Belarus. And again - they're brotherly nations, 95% of Ukrainians speak Russian.