Your right maybe ‘backers’ isn’t the right word. The ‘sistema’ or the power networks. As a previous article pointed out “Putin’s sistema functions with some elements from the ‘administrative-command’ system of Brezhnev’s socialism. However due to the monetisation of the economy, power networks that used to be aimed at obtaining privileges have become oriented towards monetary income and capital.”
Western sanctions, saber rattling and banging away on the war drums threaten that power networks wealth and place in the world. This may place enough pressure on that power base to find someone else to lead Russia who isn’t so nostalgic for the good old days and more inclined to work with us instead of China.
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