Russians, dark days are coming: You will implode

As Walter Clemens, a fellow at Harvard University's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and Professor of Political Science at Boston University, writes in his analysis for CEPA.org, if the West treats Ukraine as a lost cause, Putin will be hailed as another Peter the Great, or Stalin.

The International Criminal Court will be avoided and Russia will not be paid the trillions it owes for the damage caused to Ukraine, and Putin could get guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO. But what if all this is masking a failed regime and the collapse of the domestic front, asks the author of the text, adding that there are more and more signs that Putin's "special military operation" is destroying Russia as well as Ukraine.

The text goes on to say that many Russian observers now claim that Russia cannot win this war.

"More and more, all problems are traced to the boss in the Kremlin," says Clemens. It is recalled that Andrey Kartapolov, chairman of the Duma's defense committee, said that "dark days have begun" for Russia, as well as that the host of state television Sergey Mardan said, literally: "Enough of lying. Victory is not in sight."

Moreover, Olga Skabeyeva, the "iron puppet of Putin's television", said recently that "Special military operation hangs in the balance", admitting that journalists were forced to hide the truth.

The words of Vladimir Solovyov, known as the Kremlin's leading propagandist, have even been reported as saying that "Russia's victory is now impossible and it is time for Putin to retire." Because, as pointed out, Putin prioritizes war efforts, and higher military spending means fewer funds for health, science, education and infrastructure maintenance.

This further leads to higher inflation, interest rates, more conflicts between government ministers and members of the Duma, more repression of freedom of thought and expression, and from mid-2024 there will be no YouTube, BBC and Voice of America.

It is pointed out that Russia is also threatened by a demographic crisis as the mortality rate increases, which in turn intersects with the declining birth rate. Plus, an increasing number of Russia's best and brightest are fleeing abroad, and it is reported that as many as 700,000 soldiers have been killed or wounded.

The famous mathematician, physicist and oceanographer at the Russian Academy of Sciences Robert Iskanderovich Nigmatulin explained these questions. He says that to return to Russia's 1991 death rates, the country would have to double the share of GDP spent on health care, otherwise it would continue to suffer 200,000 or more deaths each year.

The Russian economy is now on par with Argentina, but below Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan or Belarus. "We invest, but nothing is produced, we are the most inefficient country in the world in terms of investment," he says.

"China cannot help us. We are stuck in a dead end. We have to admit that every policy of our president is negative. His ministers are incompetent. Every time they speak, they start by praising the president," he added.

Russia is in the grip of a cult of personality - a mythology that now surrounds Putin as it once was with Lenin and Stalin, the text further states.

"Of course, Ukraine and its Western partners have their own serious problems. The question is which side will collapse first in this war of attrition? If there is a chance that Russia could implode soon, is it the right time to pull the rug from under Ukraine? What could break the Kremlin's back?'', asks the author of the text.

During this time, the snow is coming. Millions of Ukrainians face a winter with little or no heat. Their lives, as well as world security, will be shaped by America's actions and inactions, Clemens writes.