January 22, 2026:
The four year war in Ukraine has not caused any significant protests or unrest among the population. The loss of 1.2 million soldiers killed, disabled or missing was becoming a problem, until the government began hiring foreigners to die for Russia in Ukraine.
The waves of economic sanctions were supposed to cause so much popular unrest that Russia would be forced to get out of Ukraine. The sanctions failed because of cheating and that Russia simply turned to neutral or pro-Russia nations like India, most of South America and many other areas not aligned with NATO members. If Russians missed a favorite Western consumer or commercial item, the non-NATO world could supply you with an adequate substitute, Even NATO country items could be obtained, with a surcharge added to pay for the extra intermediaries or sometimes directly.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin also has loyal and capable allies in the 80 governors of Russian provinces, regions and major metropolitan areas. It’s the governors who recruit the troops, and take care of those who are disabled and the families of soldiers who were killed. In return, the governors have considerable autonomy. They don’t get grief from Moscow unless a governor or his associates are involved in a major corruption scandal. Putin will tolerate minor corruption because that is the grease that keeps the political machine going. Anyone who gets greedy has to be punished and it is the central government who ultimately has to take care of that.
This system works because it is the latest version of an ancient system that worked for the monarchy as well as nearly 70 years of Communist rule and now the quasi democracy of the Russian Federation. This system can fail if there are economic or political problems the central government cannot handle. That’s happened many times in the last thousand years of Russian history. Those disasters are remembered and noted in the Russian media and speeches given by officials. If you don’t forget you are less likely to repeat past mistakes.