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In this video, we analyze how Putin’s absolute authority in Russia is affected by the social, economic and military consequences of the current situation in the Ukraine war.
How could the rise in inflation in Russia this year affect Putin’s authority?
What concessions might Russian oligarchs aim to make against Putin’s absolute authority?
How are Russian people affected by the deteriorating Russian economy and can they reflect this situation against Putin?
The voices of criticism in the minority government are getting louder every day.
But who is the government of the minority?
In Russian etymology, this term is used for Russian oligarchs.
The concept survived until the rule of Vladimir Putin.
The popular use of the term has expanded to refer to almost every Russian with significant wealth.
When Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the outside world saw the Russians known as oligarchs as men who had become almost shadow rulers through their ruthless accumulation of enormous fortunes.
But it is questionable how much political power Russia’s ultra-rich wield.
A few hours after Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, a televised meeting in the Kremlin with leading industrialists and entrepreneurs showed how the dynamics had changed.
Putin told them that he had no choice but to invade.
Although the rich businessmen expected heavy consequences for their fortunes from the war, they had to accept it. Because the power was not theirs, but the Russian leader’s.
Now we see signs that the scales are tipping.
The Russian oligarchs, who quietly accepted everything at the beginning of the war, have now reached the stage of rebellion.
Why has the attitude of the Russian oligarchs changed?
Once deemed untouchable, Russia’s billionaire class is now the Kremlin’s cash machine. Since the war began, over $50B has been extracted and 102 private assets seized—often via the Strategic Companies Law, corruption probes, or “ineffective management” claims. We trace the arc from 1990s oligarch power to today’s forced handovers: how asset sales (like major dealerships), nationalizations, and “donations” plug a widening budget hole as military costs soar. Inside the numbers: extraordinary one-off revenues, a policy rate near 20%, rising household bills, and a middle class squeezed while elites are pressed to bankroll the war. Does this internal looting keep Russia afloat—or corrode the system from within?
