Russian elite despairs of Putin's chances of winning war in Ukraine

Bloomberg reports that the Russian elite is in a state of deep despair regarding President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, with even the most hopeful seeing a 'frozen' conflict as the best available conclusion for the Kremlin now.

Many members of Russia's elite are sick of the war and want it to end, but they doubt Putin will. 

“There is an elite deadlock: they are afraid to become scapegoats for a meaningless war. It is really surprising how widespread among the Russian elite became the idea of a chance that Putin won’t win this war,” Kirill Rogov, a former Russian government advisor who left the country after the invasion said. 

The mounting despair is expected to exacerbate a blame game over responsibility for the faltering invasion, which has already sparked harsh public disputes between the Wagner Group's financier Prigozhin and Russia's Defense Ministry. 

The explosion of Ukraine's Kakhovka hydroelectric dam on Tuesday, which the Kyiv administration blamed on Russia, exacerbated the conflict as flooding poured through the battle zone. 

The majority of the elite are keeping their heads down and going on with their business, thinking that they cannot affect events, and Putin shows no signs of wanting to halt the war. 

The Kremlin has unleashed the worst crackdown in decades, jailing even minor dissenters. Russia's middle class, which had constituted the core of opposition to Putin's reign in major cities during the last decade, has been cowed into silence or has fled the country. 

With the combat continuing, Russian officials and billionaires are aware that they face years of international isolation and growing reliance on the Kremlin as Putin pushes enterprises to assist the war effort and prohibits those around them from quitting their posts. Asset freezes and travel bans have been imposed on them and their families as a result of US and European sanctions, which have also left Russia's economy one of the most sanctioned in the world, reversing decades of integration into global markets.

“Officials have adapted to the situation but no one sees any light at the end of the tunnel - they’re pessimistic about the future. The best they hope for is that Russia will lose without humiliation,” Alexandra Prokopenko, a former Russian journalist, said.