[Skybird]

I do not know Russian internal poltics, can only rread what the media writes. Defence minister Schoigu gets speculated about a lot, the governor of Kaliningrad Arachnov who grew up completely under and in Putin's system, or the mayor of Moscow. The Russian state is a state centering and focussing on Putin, he designed it to be like that, so any leave by Putin necessarily is a system change. Herein lies a big risk for instability.

And Russia is a nuclear power.

We do not want a failed transition attempt like under Yeltzin. The migration of Russian nuclear scientists to dubious new employers was breathtaking. Preventing this is and must be the top priority of the West, before anything else. I fear however that many politicians in the wEst have not understood this.