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Not Well Thought Out
This is a diversion. Me thinks the home front in Russia is very tattered at this point.
Demographics are bleak, as far as those claiming they are Russian. The USSR and the Russian Empire was made up of many different races and religions. At best the ruling class is a thin veneer applied across a wide cacophony of different elements. I don't think much has changed. War can unit a people but a long protracted struggle in a far away land can also divide it.
Putin's trying his best to keep things together. He may rule with an iron fist, but that's because he has to. Any slip up could land him in a pit riddled with bullets like the Tsar and his family.