Russia to plunge into turmoil, collapse - sociologist Yakovenko

Russian journalist and sociologist Igor Yakovenko said this on the air of the Studio West with Antin Borkovskyi program on Espreso TV. 

“Russia has absolute immunity to the number of dead. Moreover, in today's Russia - this is a fundamental difference from Soviet Russia - a fundamentally different anthropological type has formed: in contrast to the "Soviet person", this is the "Putin's person". In Russia today, it does not matter how many died - on the contrary, the number of dead is a matter of pride: the more died, the greater the feat,” he emphasized.

In Yakovenko's opinion, Putin can lose three hundred thousand people in this war, or maybe a million - there will be no reaction to this.

“The reaction will be to the loss of territory. Russia, as an imperial state, is in fact a state that serves to protect this huge territory. Russians are proud of their territory, their enormity, and for the sake of this territory they are ready to make sacrifices - of course, the sacrifices of others. Therefore, there will be no reaction to the dead. The reaction will be to the loss of territory. The loss of territory may well cause something in the armed forces, in the power structures, despite the fact that from the very beginning the leadership, the generals did not support this war, they understood that it was stupidity,” the sociologist noted. 

He believes that Putin made a unilateral decision to start a war and as a result has what he has.

“The first scenario is inertial, which makes the war stagnant and protracted, where the front line will be the Russian-Ukrainian border - internationally recognized, I emphasize. Not the line of confrontation, as it was for eight years, but the internationally recognized border will be the frontline. The second option is the submersion of Russia, and this is a very real option, which threatens and will inevitably end with the collapse of Russia. This is the third historical stage of the collapse of the Russian Empire, a natural result of the existence of the Russian project in history. As a sociologist, as a researcher of Russia, I claim that in the end this scenario will be implemented,” Yakovenko added. 

In his opinion, the collapse of the Russian Empire is inevitable.

“It is irresponsible to set deadlines, it is not the subject of accurate forecasts. But in some not-distant period, Russia as a historical project within the limits that we see today will cease to exist. It happens, empires are mortal. And especially empires like the Russian Empire are always suddenly mortal,” the sociologist concluded.