Putin punching holes in senior Russian military leadership, at least those not already killed in combat.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/putin-fires-five-more-generals-170433820.html
I truly expect one of his own to pop him, and soon. If not someone from the military, then a hit from the Russian mafia or oligarchs who've collectively lost hundreds of billions (possibly trillions) from freezes, seizures, and sanctions. I think he's way too physically insulated for a member of the gen public to do anything, but there are plenty of inner-circle types with access.
Brad
Dunno how right he is, but Zeihan claims it’s almost impossible that anyone would take out Putin. According to him there’s 2 groups of oligarchs. There’s the group that robbed Russia blind before Putin came to power. They made a deal with Putin to pay taxes and stay uninvolved in politics in exchange for not getting assassinated or exiled and everything taken away from them. That group has zero access to Putin, and if Putin got whacked they also know they’re in grave danger because everyone in Russia despises them.
The second group of oligarchs were ex-KGB pals that owe their riches to Putin. They’re supposedly too dependent on Putin to be a risk to him. They have the access to Putin to whack him, but not the willingness to do so. They also know that at the slightest hint of disloyalty they’re either dead or stripped of wealth and access.
Finally the generals are mostly too inept to take over the country.
I guess we’ll see where things go, and if Zeihan is right or not.