Kremlin Knows It's Defeated - Jason Jay Smart

[TexasTowelie]

Russia’s war is no longer only draining soldiers, weapons, and oil revenue. It is now changing how power works inside Moscow itself. For years, the Kremlin used oil cash to hide corruption, calm rivalries, and keep every faction fed. That system is now under growing strain. As money tightens, loyalty gets more expensive, fear rises, and the state can no longer shield everyone who once depended on it.

That is why the military, the intelligence services, and the internal security apparatus are no longer moving in the same direction. Arrests of generals, expanding detention power, asset seizures, bank strain, and favoritism toward protected war industries all point to the same shift. The Kremlin is being forced to decide who gets funding, who gets cover, and who gets sacrificed. That is what makes this moment dangerous for Putin’s regime.

Ukraine’s strikes are making that internal struggle harsher by hitting the cash flows, logistics nodes, and infrastructure that keep the system alive. Every new disruption narrows Moscow’s options and raises the political cost of continuing the war. Russia can still fight, but it is becoming harder to govern. When a regime can no longer finance loyalty, contain rivalries, or protect its own insiders, instability stops being a distant risk and starts becoming the story itself.

CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Intro: Putin’s Shrinking Shield
01:53 - The FSB’s Cannibalism: Devouring Russia’s Elite
03:33 - Russia’s Blood Math: The Battlefield Deficit
05:55 - Kremlin Infighting: The Industrial Civil War
09:07 - Putin’s Czar Delusion: The Moscow Disconnect
10:14 - Russia’s Bankruptcy: The Dictator’s Final Countdown

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Then TSF lifted the sanctions on Russian oil.

[Haggard Celine]

2. I hope they crash hard,

and Putin gets the Mussolini treatment.