Putin's Damaged Stature

Putin is on back on his heels due to Crocus, security forces are concerned.

Two videos this morning from The Sunday Times of the U.K. on Putin’s damaged stature due to the Crocus terror attack. He’s attempted to spin this as a Ukraine problem and the security forces aren’t buying it. The first is Mark Galeotti and the second Sir Tony Brenton.

The big takeaway from this for me was this part of Galeotti’s statement - doesn’t include the word demographics, but that’s entirely what this is about.

5:56: So unfortunately, we will probably see a crack down on central Asian guest workers, of whom there are millions across the Russian Federation.

6:04: And the trouble is that, okay, so this is a way of performing simply looking tough.

6:09: One is the Russian economy desperately needs these workers for time when there's a labor crisis in Russia.

6:15: So actually, the state is in a bind.

6:19: Politically, it needs to seem tough economically. It needs to keep these workers in control.

6:25: Probably Putin is going to sacrifice the economic advantage just in order to maintain his credentials as a tough guy.