Vladimir Putin’s defeat in Ukraine is needed for the restoration of hope to Russians wanting a better future for themselves as well as their neighbours
Vladimir Putin is losing the war in Ukraine, but this does not make him any less dangerous. A despot whose authority at home depends on projecting strength abroad cannot afford the humiliation of defeat. So far, the Russian president has responded to every setback with more aggression. That involves more indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civil infrastructure. But Mr Putin also makes more demands of Russians. When the war began, civilian support for what censorship laws insisted on calling a “special military operation” was high, but mostly passive. Saturated with Kremlin propaganda, most of the country accepted the deranged official version of events – that Ukrainians were crying out for “liberation” by Russian soldiers.
But there was also dissent and protest in defiance of repression. Tens of thousands of people left the country in horror when the war began. Their number was then swollen by Mr Putin’s decision last month to declare a “partial mobilisation” of fighting-age men.
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