After the CIA director's visit, Putin told his inner circle that he would be hanged — The Economist

Vladimir Putin likely decided to further escalate the war after several weeks of deliberation this summer. According to *The Economist*, the Russian dictator may be seeking to preserve his power and his life through this escalation.

 

At the same time, one of Putin’s longtime allies says that Putin likely interpreted CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s visit as a sign of American weakness. According to the source, this is exactly how Putin interpreted the November 2021 visit to Moscow by Bill Burns, the CIA director under Joe Biden, who tried to warn him against invading Ukraine.

“No one can know what is going on in Putin’s mind. But the reasons for the escalation of the war, like the decision to invade itself, are internal in nature. His main goal has always been to preserve his own power and, ultimately, his own life,” the publication notes.

One of the main problems for the Kremlin is the disappearance of the public’s tacit consent to the war. Trust in television propaganda is falling, and young people are posting calls to end the war on social media. Putin’s approval rating is declining.

The mood among the elite is even more pessimistic. According to one insider, the main problem lies not so much in the economy or the lack of military successes as in the wasted time: whatever the outcome, nearly five years is a failure. There is a growing sense that the emperor has no clothes, says another member of the elite.

And although none of Russia’s economic or political problems are fatal to Putin, he is guided by the logic of his regime: never show weakness, the publication notes.

“The Russian system is highly tolerant of violence, but it does not forgive failure. Putin likely believes that ending the war without achieving even the minimal goal—the capture of the entire Donbas—would put him in physical danger. ‘They’ll hang me,’ he told some of his friends at one point during the war, according to an insider.”

However, continuing the war in its current form is not a solution either—it simply drains economic resources and squanders political capital, says one member of the Russian elite.

All of this may make escalation appealing to Putin, but it remains unclear how he will act, the publication notes.

Russia will likely intensify its hybrid warfare and sabotage against Ukraine’s allies, as well as attack supply routes from Europe to Ukraine. Western intelligence agencies fear that Russia may attack factories in Europe that produce materials for Ukraine’s military needs.

Within Ukraine, escalation means an expansion of the measures Russia is already taking. On August 30, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced preparations for a massive strike on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. As for the ground war, Russian sources claim that Putin intends to throw another 300,000–400,000 people into the meat grinder, according to The Economist.

As a reminder, on the afternoon of August 30, Russian troops attacked Kyiv with strike drones. Explosions were heard in the capital, and air defense forces engaged enemy targets.

In Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district, a fire broke out in a non-residential building as a result of the Russian drone attack. Emergency services are on the scene, working to deal with the aftermath of the strike.

In Kyiv, rescue workers extinguished a large-scale fire that broke out in the Holosiivskyi district following a Russian attack on the morning of August 30. The fire engulfed a non-residential building covering an area of about 3,000 square meters; there were no casualties or injuries.