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Robyn Dixon, "Putin, tone deaf and isolated, pursues war ‘goals’ and refuses to lose" https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/13/putin-war-ukraine-russia-retreat/

« But [political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya] added this approach [i.e., Putin bet that the West will fall apart eventually and Ukraine will give up one day, so today's problems won't matter, in Putin's vision] required Russia’s elite to blindly follow Putin’s vision of a Russian victory cementing its place as a great power in a multipolar world, without knowing how this would happen.

“This is his stake, but he can’t explain it to the elites, because it’s nonsense. You just can’t be convincing about it. This is why he doesn’t really speak about it. He doesn’t explain how he is going to win,” she said, adding there was “a growing problem” with Putin’s leadership.

“He creates too much uncertainty. He is completely unclear about where we are going, what our goals are and how we’re going to win. He has detached himself from the elites. And following Putin, without knowing where we are going, can’t last forever.” »

[Good observation on the latent instability of Putin's leadership. Reminds me of Hitler's lack of perspective (aside from simply going on) in the later years of WWII. The same "hope" that the coalition of allies would fall apart and each adversary could then be dealt with individually. And the lesson that a leading figure needs to communicate goals in order for his followers to stick with him.]

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