Ukraine's rapid military offensive into Russia's Kursk region seems to have caught Moscow unprepared.
Get organized and transform your home with these Insider DealsFILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during an event to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk in World War II at a memorial in the village of Ponyri, near Kursk, Russia, on Aug. 23, 2023.
In his 24 years in power, Putin has portrayed himself as the only person who can guarantee Russia's security and stability, but that image has suffered since the war began. While state TV drives the still-strong support for Putin despite setbacks like the Kursk incursion, it’s harder to gauge the opinions of his key constituency — Russia’s elites.
The question they are asking themselves about Putin, Schulmann said, “is whether the old man is still an asset or already a liability.” On Aug. 19, 2000, less than a year after Putin became president, the Kursk sank in the Barents Sea after one of its torpedoes exploded, killing all 118 sailors aboard. Putin stayed on vacation early in the crisis — setting off widespread criticism — and waited five days before accepting Western offers of help that might have saved some sailors who initially survived the explosion.
Still, Putin’s hold on power “is unlikely to be weakened as a result of this humiliation,” wrote Eugene Rumer, senior fellow and the director of the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Program, in a commentary. “The entire Russian political and military establishment is complicit in his war and responsible for this disaster.”
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