Putin is unlikely to stop war due to lack of resources - Russian opposition leader

He said this on Espreso TV. 

"As for the real chances that Putin will suspend hostilities today because Russia is running out of material resources to continue a high-intensity war, I think there is a 0% chance of that happening. They have enough material resources. And even if we look at the next year's budget of the Russian Federation, there is a significant increase in military spending. They are now devaluing the ruble (depreciation of the national currency against gold, silver, and certain foreign currencies - ed.) precisely to have more money to finance the war. In addition, they will continue military production, bypassing sanctions to get certain chips and everything they need to make missiles," the Russian oppositionist explained.

According to him, social programs in Russia could theoretically suffer, but there will not be any radical reduction.

"As long as there are countries that buy oil and gas from Russia, this will continue. I have no hope that we will be able to convince India or China to stop trading with Russia. This will not happen. So I emphasize again that the change of power is the only important thing. The elites are getting tired, they also want to get out of the war. However, if they still have hope that they can wait and everything will be fine, they will not move anywhere," said Ilya Ponomarev.

• On September 29, Putin instructed the Wagner former chief of staff, Andrey Troshev, to form so-called volunteer units for the war in Ukraine.
• On September 30, British intelligence confirmed Putin's plans to create new "volunteer units."