He Won't Live To See Christmas

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A former Soviet military spy has claimed that Vladimir Putin “will not live to see Christmas,” claiming the Russian president is leading his country to the edge of catastrophe.

Viktor Suvorov, a former officer of the Soviet army and GRU operative, suggested on Polish TV network Polsat News that the support for Putin by Russian oligarchs, whose lives and businesses have been affected by Western sanctions, will soon wane.

“We can see that there are oligarchs, who as a result of Putin’s policy, have lost much, and they do not like that,” Suvorov told the news channel. “Imagine that you have billions of dollars, travel around the world and that suddenly comes to an end. They seize your yacht. What’s next? Will we love Putin? No,” he added.

Suvorov pointed to examples from Russian history in which tyrants were killed in staged coups, and suggested that “history is now repeating itself.”

“He will be murdered, they’ll do something with him, remove him. I do not want to predict what because I don’t like doing so, but in my personal opinion: he will not live to see Christmas,” the former Soviet military spy claimed.

Suvorov, whose real name is Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun, is a Russian writer and historian. He fled Russia to the United Kingdom at the end of the 1970s and continues to live there until this day. His pen-name refers to 18th century Russian commander Alexander Suvorov.

Are we certain his successor won't just take over the empire?

Not at all, I don't think the suggestion is that this is a solution for the West's Russia concerns, instead that'll be another element in play before this has resolved itself.

I think what the west want is a puppet leader in Russia (and probably China) who will cease hostility withdraw from borders and go back to a clean democracy where they give themselves the opportunity to vote themselves out of power.

Unless there is a people's revolution in Russia or China (and in the case of China I seriously doubt it) the new leadership will simply set up a new regime. Different clothes same game.

I wouldn't count on a democracy in either of those places suddenly becoming pro-western and a puppet state by definition can't be a democracy.

Look at other western-aligned puppet states, they weren't democracies they were right-wing dictatorships like South Korea and Taiwan used to be, or like the US used to install in Central and South America.

One can only hope. At least the some of the Russian oligarchs are pointing the blame in the right direction. This whole conflict is 100% Putin's fault, and the fewer allies he has going forward, the better.

This whole conflict is 100% Putin's fault

Putin is going to be hard to take down given he's the biggest mafia boss on planet earth,

I read a piece on some newswebsite (guardian?) by a Russian journalist argueing that the west is mistaking the concept of the Russisn oligarch.
These people are billionaires *because of Putin*. He has power over them, he put them in offices or made them heads of industry.
They're not like American or European oligarchs, who got rich in business first and are using their wealth to lobby for their interests - these guys used to be mobsters and loyal bureaucrats who suddenly got promoted to the board of Gazprom.
In this journalist's line of argumentation, sanctions will hurt the oligarchs, and they'll lose their properties in London and NYC, but only Putin can take away whatever makes them the money they have been spending outside of Russia. The journalist's prognosis on the effectiveness of sanctions on oligarchs were accordingly rather less hopefull.

That's rather small-minded. That's the exact thinking that caused the miscalculation that led to the armed conflict.

There will be dancing in the streets.