Putin Losing Control

• Timothy Snyder
• 25.07.2022, 12:48

His entourage began a struggle for power.

The power of the ruler of Russia, Putin, who has severe mental disorders, is weakening, and his entourage is preparing for the power struggle. This opinion was expressed by American writer and historian who specializes in the history of Central and Eastern Europe, Yale University Professor Timothy Snyder, writes Newsweek.

He sees signs of Putin losing control in the way former Russian top officials, in particular Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of the Russian Federation, and now deputy chairman of the Security Council, threaten Ukraine and the West.

Thus, Medvedev recently warned that the West's response to the Russian war in Ukraine could result in the Eastern European country losing “the remnants of state sovereignty, and disappear from the world map”.

Previously, before the full-scale war, according to Snyder, no one except Putin made such statements. In his opinion, such statements by Medvedev not only demonstrate his loyalty to the head of the Kremlin, but are also preparations for “a struggle for power after the fall of Putin”.

“For my part, I tend to see the drastic proclamations as evidence that important Russians think that Russia is losing,” Snyder said.

He added that he doubts that Medvedev himself, who for years has been seen as a liberal alternative to Putin, believes in the hate speech he publishes.

“The equilibrium that keeps Putin in power—mastery over rivals, soft support in the population, integrity of the army—is challenged by the realities of an unpredictable, costly war. Putin has been good at keeping us all in a fog. But now he himself seems lost in the fog of war,” Snyder sums up.