Is Putin's power in the Kremlin crumbling?
Russia expert Mark N. Katz is certain that the Ukraine war will soon lead to a split.
Moscow - Putin's circle of power in the Kremlin is more divided than it appears from the outside and could even be on the verge of collapse: That's what the US Russia expert Mark N. Katz said in an interview with the Ukrainian newspaper
Kyiv Post
.
Katz even thinks a coup against Putin is possible.
Even if the Kremlin appears closed to the outside world, it is in fact deeply divided, believes the professor at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government.
The reason is that the Ukraine war is going "miserably" for Russia.
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Does he control the Kremlin?
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
© Alexander Demianchuk/Imago
Putsch against Putin: Kremlin on the verge of collapse?
Expert sees "real probability"
Katz believes that the different camps in the Kremlin would blame each other for failures in Ukraine.
Mutual distrust grows.
Sooner or later, one of President Vladimir Putin's circle will try to seize power, the Russia expert is convinced.
There is "the real probability" of an early coup.
One indication of the increasing disintegration of the Kremlin is the open criticism that Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin repeatedly voiced against Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
"Anytime a leader publicly criticizes another leader, that's a symbol of a real collapse in power," Katz emphasizes.
In his opinion, those in power in the Kremlin have reason to be genuinely concerned about Prigozhin - while Prigozhin himself shows no fear of the Russian Defense Ministry.
Coup against Putin: Prigozhin as a threat to the Kremlin or a puppet of Russia's president?
However, other experts have already come to different conclusions about a possible fall of Putin and a putsch in the Kremlin: In a recent analysis, the US Institute for the Study on War assumed that Putin had killed personalities such as Prigozhin and the Chechen leader Kadyrov consciously use.
If necessary, he wanted to blame Shoigu and other Russian elites for failures in the Ukraine war, it was said: Prigozhin had, so to speak, the "license to disrupt" from Putin.
Russia expert Katz, on the other hand, believes that Putin - "as always with dictators" - no longer trusts anyone in his circle.
"He plays everyone against each other," says the professor.
The Russian President knows that he cannot win the Ukraine war.
But he couldn't afford a defeat, because then "his days would be numbered".
Vladimir Putin: The political career of the Russian head of state in pictures
Vladimir Putin: The political career of the Russian head of state in pictures
Putin's ex-speechwriter also believes in a coup in Russia
Putin's former speechwriter, who worked for the Kremlin for a decade, also assumes that a coup in Russia is inevitable: the Russian people are becoming more and more aware of the "senselessness" of the Ukraine war, according to Abbas Gallyamov in an interview with a Russian opposition newspaper on a possible overthrow of the ruler, reported on
by IPPEN.MEDIA 's
Kreiszeitung.de .
In the eyes of the people, Putin has changed "from a great strategist to a second-rate dictator," according to the expert on Russian domestic politics.
The former speechwriter, like Russia expert Katz, believes that Putin cannot expect much loyalty from his military leaders when it matters - they are all "opportunists".
(smu)
List of rubrics: © Alexander Demianchuk/Imago
