Power Line 10/27/2025
This very long article in the Telegraph is behind a paywall, but that link should work for everyone. It is headlined: “Putin fears another coup as Russia finally begins to buckle.” Subhed: “Panic in the Kremlin as it runs out of cards to play just as Trump turns the screws.” The article is too long to excerpt effectively, but I will try:
Suddenly, Putin has many reasons to be worried.
Russia’s economy is beginning to buckle. Businesses have been crippled by high interest rates, government borrowing costs have soared and economy minister Maxim Reshetnikov warned in June that the country was “on the brink of a recession”. Warnings are mounting over a potential avalanche of bad debt that could trigger a financial crisis.
There is much more explanation of the economic crisis, which you can read at the link. Among other things, the Russian government has been financing the Ukraine war off the books, with Putin pressuring Russian banks to lend money to defense companies. Those are bad loans that are now coming due.
Now Donald Trump is turning the screws. After frustration over a lack of progress to end the war in Ukraine, the US president announced new sanctions on two of Russia’s biggest oil companies on Wednesday.
India and China, the main buyers of Russian oil since the war began, responded by curbing purchases. It threatens to cut off crucial oil revenues to Putin’s war machine – and the Russian state.
“For the first time in three and a half years, Russia’s really getting hurt,” says Timothy Ash, an associate fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia programme. “I think there’s some panic.”
More:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/10/russia-in-crisis.php
