Commentary for the GuildHall News Agency
The decline in economic resources in Russia deepens the crisis in relations between Moscow and the Russian regions, intensifies confrontation between groups within the Kremlin and weakens the Putin’s regime from within, noted Victor Hvozd for the GuildHall News Agency.
“A gradual weakening of the current regime continues in Russia, this process is logical, and I would even say evolutionary. The reduced financial and economic base within the regime provokes destructive processes, both inside the Kremlin and especially in the relations between the center and the regions of the Russian Federation that are financial dependent on the center’s money. As long as the previous level of oil prices is remained, this made it possible to buy the loyalty of local elites, “barons” and “kings”, first of all in the Caucasus, and also in other Russian regions. Today the situation is changing, it will only getting worse,” said V. Hvozd.
“Geopolitical processes and socio-economic degradation are drivers for change within Russia. Decreasing resources, sanctions and Western levers of influence increase disputes between groups within the Kremlin itself. Someone is fighting around Putin, someone for influence on the first person. The elites’ resources are concentrated in the West and some of these elites realize that they are being “driven behind the red flags”, and they completely disagree with this”, summed up Lieutenant General V. Hvozd.
