Russia Policy Monitor No. 2662
Warsaw in The Kremlin's Crosshairs;
The Ukraine War Is Driving Russian Demographic Decline;
Chechnya As Military Training Hub;
Russia's Ties To The Taliban Run Deep;
Warsaw in The Kremlin's Crosshairs;
The Ukraine War Is Driving Russian Demographic Decline;
Chechnya As Military Training Hub;
Russia's Ties To The Taliban Run Deep;
How the FSB is evolving;
A deepening science deficit;
Russia repositions after Assad;
Moscow's drone-enabled espionage
Persecuting Navalny, continued;
A shakeup in the Russian intelligence ranks;
Moscow looks to Africa;
Finland fights back;
Homegrown resistance to academic propaganda
Seeking a post-Assad Modus Vivendi;
Subverting Ukraine from the inside;
Another use for Russia's shadow fleet;
More tyranny of the law
The question of why totalitarian regimes suddenly and unexpectedly collapse has long perplexed researchers, generating no shortage of post-mortems and scholarly analyses after the fact. Accurately predicting the longevity of such regimes is a risky enterprise, and the subject of this report – an examination of how close the regime created by Russian President Vladimir Putin might be to its downfall – is inherently speculative in nature. Yet, as a direct witness to the collapse of the Soviet Union, I have a clear sense of how the sudden collapse of seemingly unshakable power can occur. What follows is my best assessment of the current state of Putin’s regime, drawing on both general observations and extensive personal experience.