Russian Succession

 Russian succession

(Washington Post) Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will not lose in Ukraine. But multiple battlefield defeats and national fury over a botched military mobilization have broken a taboo in Moscow on discussions about what would happen if Putin did lose—not just the war, but his seeming bid to be leader-for-life. Kremlin-watchers, inside and outside the capital, are asking: Who might come next? Some alternatives (the Chechen leader, for example) are reminders of how much worse than Putin a future leader could be if the Kremlin loses control, yielding a chaotic, brutal power struggle instead of a carefully manipulated succession in the country with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal.