The Russian exile oppositionist Leonid Volkov sees a devastating miscalculation on the part of Russian President Vladimir Putin with regard to the Ukraine war: “Putin has clearly shortened his term of office.”
Volkov, a confidant of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who is in prison in Russia, said in an interview with the AFP news agency: It was obvious that Putin had “miscalculated” on the Ukraine war and that the invasion of the neighboring country was doomed to fail. And: By deciding to invade Ukraine, Putin “dramatically reduced the likelihood of a scenario in which he simply stays in the Kremlin until he dies,” just as the longtime head of state “planned.”
At a summit for human rights and democracy in Geneva, Volkov also said: So far, Putin has had some success in “selling” his propaganda narrative on the Ukraine war via the Russian state media.
However, the Russian elites are already “very unhappy about the economic devastation, the victims, the restrictions and sanctions”. He expects that “they will think about a regime change, about a change of the system”.
