Prolonged war will allow Putin to stay in power - Piontkovsky

He shared his opinions with Espreso TV.

"30 million people liable for military service in the Russian Federation are included in the electronic register. Putin, without formally declaring it, has introduced martial law in the country. It's astonishing that the theses of the authors of the New York Times, Politico, and the Washington Post endless articles coincide with the theses of Russian propagandists. It all started with Solovyov who began to voice the narrative that Ukraine's spring offensive may result in partial local success, but this success would not decide the outcome of the war. And those articles say the same thing, that Ukraine may achieve small territorial successes, but it will not be a decisive blow. The situation will stabilize, freeze, and it will be a long conflict of attrition," Piontkovsky noted.

According to the political scientist, this is exactly the kind of protracted conflict that Putin is looking for. Because a prolonged conflict will allow him to stay in power.

"In his address to the federal assembly, Putin made the following proposal: we will send people at the frontline on vacation every 6 months for 24 days. The phrase "every 6 months" is used. That is, in his mind, there is an ongoing positional war. He realizes that he is not capable of any offensive or capture of Kyiv. But he wants to maintain such a protracted positional war that would preserve his power, so that there would be no obvious defeat," Piontkovsky emphasized.

• No festive demonstrations will be held in Moscow on May 1 due to high risk of terrorist threat.

• A unified register of persons liable for military service and electronic summonses is being introduced in Russia, which indicates that the Kremlin is preparing for a long war against Ukraine.