Putin's domestic problem is not his bare-faced lies. Believing them is not required - it's too hard to keep up with them anyway. Russians merely observe lies for what it tells them about their leaders.
No, it is the deleterious direct effect his actions have had, and the worse yet to come.
The conflict between Russians first suffering to transform from Communist dilapidation, then suddenly having the Kleptocrat-in-Chief invade Ukraine to establish some sort of unsustainable mini-USSR theme-park, has got to grate.
Russians will also understand that when the entire Western world is aligned against your autocratic Chief Kleptocrat, there is a possibility he may be mistaken.
Taking Crimea may have generated some quiet, nationalistic gloating - after all, it must have been hard to suddenly surrender all your empire late last century.
However, stepping onto the brink of war against NATO and the USA is a different kettle of fish. Especially when Ukraine is demonstrating what some of their borrowed modern weapons can do to their own clapped-out rabble of an army, a significant number of which has already been killed - maybe 50,000 of them.
It must be giving them pause for thought.
Thoughts such as 'WTAF' and 'let's get rid of this thieving, war-mongering despot, before the country and our lives are completely ruined for generations to come', or even a simple 'couldn't we expend our mighty national efforts a bit more constructively in the 21st Century?'
Sadly, Putin's mobilisation, the fresh wave of propaganda and the exigencies of war itself may delay his inevitable overthrow. It's probably why he has done it, after all.
As a previous President and Putin-admirer might say, 'Sad'
