Under Putin Russian social structure has been turning more and more rigid. It is recruiting too few ambitious upstarts, mostly in its economic agencies. Putin increasing and increasing retirement age for high officials means that option of "joining the table" doesn't really exist
That is why a significant number of the ambitious endorsed the war with Ukraine wholeheartedly. They hoped that artificial crisis will create the window of opportunities. Imagine if much of the current elite is purged for corruption/lack of patriotism? So many new vacancies
There is a nice study (unpublished) on the diverging regional strategies regarding mobilisation. Some governors are mobilising for the war unironically. Others are bullshiting and faking it. And there's clear correlation between the age and the BS/non-BS approach to mobilisation
The older a governor is, the higher the chance that he is faking it. Sometimes it amounts to nearly open sabotage. The younger a governor is, the higher the chance he is doing it thoroughly and enthusiastically. Because he *wants* disruption. He wants up
The idea that it is all just Putin's war is a lie. That's absolutely not true. Many people (and officials) support it. They invested in it heavily. Many are critical of Putin's system, despise its corruption, nepotism, inefficiency. They hoped the war would allow for a cleansing
Honestly, the "patriotic" criticism of Putism is a blind spot of the Western discourse. Patriots would love to cleanse the rotten system, purge corrupt officials and the wage the wars of imperial restorations more effectively. That's an *extremely* popular sentiment in Russia
The fact that "patriotic" criticism of Putin has nearly zero representation in the Western discourse shows that Westerners are absolutely delusional about the Russian internal discourse. Because they never paid attention to it in the first place and still don't want to
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