Putin making Russia disappear as nation

Vladimir Putin is in new battlegrounds, where masks won’t help. They include tight sanctions likely to soon be imposed, the emotional drain of being a pariah again, and unfriendly courtrooms.
And all the friendly Russian media in all the world won’t be able to put the Soviet Empire back together again.
In fact, it is argued in the Interpreter that Russia has already disappeared.
Yevgeny Gontmakher argues that Putin’s actions “are accelerating the disappearance of Russia not so much in the sense of pointing to a change in its borders but rather with regard to the existence of a distinctive Russian society capable of surviving into the future.
“Russia is disappearing” as a separate civilization, says the deputy director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations.
He predicts more and more former Soviet Republicans, like the Ukraine, will say “good bye to Russia.”
His comments could be applied to the US as well, or China. How does a civilization stay together? Apparently Putin believes tanks can do it.
Gontmakher says two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall the Kremlin has not been able to establish an effective government. “Corruption, ineffectiveness, unprofessionalism, and personal rule” prevent Russia from becoming an established state.
Instead of consolidating the nation it is trying to unify all Russian speakers distracts from solidifying the country. Imagine if Britain tried to bring all English speakers together?
Putin may be a tactical master but a strategist he is not. He doesn't even understand the new paradigm. Cypher warfare is the state of the art.
If he fulfills his threat to invade Ukraine his country is likely to face evertighter sanctions that will rattle an already fragile economy.
His oligarch buddies are finding themselves facing arrest if they leave the homeland. Serhiy Kurchenko has been detained in Austria and could be extradited to the US to face racketeering charges because he allegedly used American banks. A lawsuit also has been filed in US courts.
Putin clearly does not understand economics. His boasts of new oil arriving from the Arctic and his plans to build a submarine base there has raised the hackles of environmentalists. Europe does not need another warning to move away from its reliance on Russian energy.