Interesting (if true) - Economist is in the major leagues in terms of reliability. There is a “They”, and it’s probably the intelligence services. And the actual method would probably be less dignified than a hanging.
Not only is there a “they”, but it says Putin is entirely self-aware about the situation, and that he understands that he is personally accountable for this war.
This isn’t an optimistic post - frankly the grim truth has always seemed that this industrial murder festival will go on as long as he does. Russia of the last hundred years has been essentially a crime syndicate. To say he’s a Tsar kind of misses the point - the REAL power is the intelligence servies, and the Tsar-proxy is kind of a figurehead.
If he said this, it’s very telling. He knows the war is going badly, he knows his life is personally depenent on the outcome, he fears “they”, he wants to live and he doesn’t know what to do. Seems highly likely he’ll conitnue to escalate until…? Russian history suggests that when things don’t go well, they purge the leader and put all the blame on him in retirement. Don’t think Putin will get the “Kruschev Dacha Retirement” package - he’s done WAY too much damage.
Hopefully “They” are paying attention too, and are getting tired of the lack of progress.
That’s ridiculous he won’t be hanged. He’ll be defenestrated.
Better out the door of an airplane with no parachute from 20,000 feet. Livestreamed with telephoto lenses.
Let him really think about it on the way down. And let anyone else who wants to use power and money this way a preview of what will happen to them.
My guess is his death will be personal and quiet. Poison. He’ll be blamed almost coloquially for this whole nasty affair “you understand the game, Vladimir. Now drink your tea”. And then there will be an awful power struggle in Russia along ethno-corporate warlord lines. The winning faction will take considreable time to consolidate their power. Total mystery who that might be, given that his dictatorship cult has deliberately forbidden faction cores that might compete with his own to exist. Lots of power brokers will pick the wrong side and end up dead.
Things will have to get very, very bad again, like the 90’s, before an appetite for an all-powerful national savior strongman emerges again. But glass half full - during that power struggle, Russia will not really have the jam to run state level invasions against it’s neighbours and it will be weaker than it is today when it’s done. Highly likely that Dagestan, Chechnya, Yakutia all break away and Russia shrinks into a rump state similiar to how the Ottoman empire lost its colonies over a long time frame and ended up with it’s current configuration in Turkey.
Unlikely we get a Gaddhafi style bayonet enema on video or a Ceaucescu gutter bleed-out. Russia’s way is to scapegoat the last guy, then pretend to be a society again for a while.