"Jackals ran to taste blood”
How Russian Elites Live in Anticipation of The End of The War And The Crisis of Power - 05/26/2026
Putin's system is entering a zone of turbulence. The ratings of the authorities have fallen to their lows during the entire war, the elites do not understand the configuration of the future, regional budgets are cracking under the pressure of military spending. The split is not along the line of “power against opposition” - there is no opposition as such within the country - but within the system itself.
Mid-level officials admit in private conversations that the system has no future, but they do not go beyond this statement out of caution. Verstka talked to people inside the system - from Kremlin functionaries to regional governments - about what this crisis looks like from the inside.
Allegedly, the former high-ranking official described four synchronously triggered mechanisms for the degradation of the system. The war turned out to be longer and more expensive than planned. The elites, forced to repatriate capital from the West, have lost their usual legal guarantees - London courts, offshore structures, international arbitration, and now they themselves crave institutions capable of resolving conflicts fairly: in three years, about 5 trillion rubles worth of assets were confiscated from entrepreneurs, the largest redistribution of property since the privatization of the 1990s.
Russia has destroyed the world order in which it was the arbiter: Europe buys gas elsewhere, its seat on the Security Council has been devalued, and nuclear blackmail has undermined the nonproliferation regime. Finally, the old social contract - the state does not touch private life, citizens do not touch politics - has been destroyed: instead of convenience and consumption, the system now offers only repression and censorship.
“Each of his steps to preserve and expand this system accelerates its decline,” the author concluded, using the chess term “zugzwang”: any move worsens the position.
The report also records the growing tension between the security forces: after the assassination of Lieutenant General Sarvarov in December 2025, Gerasimov, Bortnikov and Zolotov shifted responsibility for security failures to each other at a closed meeting with Putin. Former head of the Ministry of Defense, Secretary of the Security Council Sergei Shoigu, who fell into disgrace after the riot of Yevgeny Prigozhin, is called “retaining significant influence in the military command” and “is associated with the risk of a coup attempt.”
“The fact that the system has no future is obvious to everyone, and is discussed by all of us. But no one goes beyond the statement of fact. The walk-in has not grown,” a mid-level employee of the presidential administration tells Verstka. According to him, “despite the natural idea that something needs to be done about it,” they try not to express this “even in bars and smoking rooms.”
“Because no one knows for sure about anyone whether a rat is human or not.”
The interlocutor of Verstka adds that “the lack of any active plans” is now accompanied by a “general depression.”
“The situation is very clear - tomorrow it will be worse or the same. You can't influence it. So you become dull, along with everyone else. People are looking for something to be distracted by besides work or go into solving “small things”. No one weaves conspiracies here.”
There is a belief that people close to the inside of the floor will arrange transit. Someday,” he hastily clarifies. "Now the elites simply do not understand the configurations of power in the coming years. It's not even about Putin, but even about the fact that there is a habit of shaking up the team. They want to stay in it.”
“Now the main question about the system is: what will happen if, according to the results of the counting, 65% in the final protocol is for United Russia, and in real ballot boxes - well, for example, 15%? Nothing? Or will it already go off the rails? Most are inclined to believe that nothing will happen. But fear still runs in the eyes,” a high-ranking representative of the Russian electoral system ironically said in an interview with Verstka.
In addition to telephone surveys, sociologists began to visit apartments themselves. This led to an increase in the ratings of both Putin personally (up to 66.8%) and United Russia. Political scientist Fyodor Krasheninnikov, in an interview with Vyorstka, stressed that polls should be treated with caution, because it is not known for certain how exactly state sociologists prepare them.
“I would not trust these ratings at all, to what extent do they reflect the real picture? There is also a mobilization significance in this [publication of declining ratings]: the Kremlin needs to force regional officials to deal with elections from morning to evening. If there are good ratings, then you can do nothing,” the expert draws attention.
According to Krasheninnikov, both the elites and the population in Russia are “not doing very well,” but the same can hardly be said about Putin and his inner circle.
“There, I think, everyone is happy like elephants. They're all billionaires. War, not war, where can they go? And from the point of view of people in Putin's entourage, the situation is not bad. Yes, there is no advance, but there is no defeat either, the war is taking place on the territory of Ukraine. Putin went to China, communicates with Trump, there is vacillation in Europe,” Krasheninnikov argues.
"Do we expect that someone in Putin's inner circle will do something against him? To go to prison? As long as he is alive, no one from his entourage will lift a finger. This is emigrant self-deception that someone will do it there.”
https://verstka.media/kak-rossiiskie-elity-zhivut-v-ozhidanii-koncza-voiny-i-krizisa-vlasti 
