The things I like best about Andrei Piontkovsky are his exceptional restraint, carefully measured understatement, and avoidance of inflammatory language … OK, Piontkovsky is pretty much the opposite of all that, but that doesn’t mean he is without some good points.  I usually respectfully disagree with the “regime is about to collapse” argument of the opposition, but rather the discussion should focus on the impact on society of Russia’s institutional corrosion.  The loss of many of these social shock absorbers (such as functioning courts, accountable cops), does put a stopwatch on the sustainability of the current model.

From Piontkovsky on Project Syndicate (Japan Times):

At such moments of decline in Russia, the clans always come to the fore in a mad scramble of self-preservation and self-enrichment. Even Putin’s truest followers are now beginning to speak of their leader and the results of his governance in impertinent and disrespectful ways.

Of course, no one should think that Putinism will disappear tomorrow, even though its jackals are already circling. Let us remember that Soviet communism took four decades to rot away — decades during which the inner circle knew that the regime was disintegrating from within but lacked any real idea of how to save it.