“If in 2011-2014, … the threat to the regime, if it existed, was only in the heads of Putin and his entourage [but] today, it is really visible to the unaided eye” and has been “established by the efforts of Putin himself.”

“The goal of this war is not the recovery of ratings as was the case in the era of ‘Crimea is ours’ but rather the introduction of martial law which will allow the regime to deal with dissatisfaction and establish a pure and unconcealed dictatorship. The variants, besides ‘a liberation campaign on Kyiv,’ are not that many,” Larionov says.

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