Putin has benefited immensely from rising gas and oil prices since he took power. He’s benefited from good fortune, not from sound economic management. And now he’s trashed it. He has destroyed Russia’s premium energy markets in Europe, and they won’t be coming back. He took his golden goose and wrung its neck.
What the Russian elite, oligarchs, and Russian people will come to understand is there is no path to victory in Ukraine and in the absence of any end to this mess, the Russian economy will eventually enter a death spiral. It may not happen for months, or a year, but it will eventually happen.
