War in Ukraine will turn into civil war inside Russia - Piontkovsky

He said this on Espreso TV. 

“In Russia, financial ties with oligarchs will no longer be decisive. The strength of a politician is already determined by the number of armed men who obey him. And this is a picture of a completely new Russia. The strength of Prigozhin and the strength of Kadyrov is that they each have 30,000 armed soldiers who obey only them. At the front, there are a lot of situations and clashes between these structures and the Russian armed forces,” Piontkovsky noted.

According to the political scientist, Putin's state has lost its monopoly on violence.

“Violence became the argument of those field commanders who were able to rally the most qualified, energetic and numerous armed units. These are the sparks of a new long civil war that will shake all of Russia. The war in Ukraine will turn into a civil war inside Russia. So far, this is an elite fight. But the people's struggle will begin when half of the mobilized soldiers who will survive the defeat of Russia will return to the capital with their machine guns. This is roughly the perspective in Russia now,” Piontkovsky explained.

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