That prevents nuclear use
JEAN-BAPTISTE JEANGÈNE VILMER, 22 - Ph.D., (@jeangene_vilmer) is the director of the Institute for Strategic Research (IRSEM) at the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Europe Center of the Atlantic Council“PUTIN LOSES NO MATTER HOW THIS PLAYS OUT, BUT WE MIGHT TOO” War on the Rocks, 3/2, https://warontherocks.com/2022/03/putin-loses-no-matter-how-this-plays-out-but-we-might-too/
More worrying for him is the discontent of the Russian economic elite, who will lose a lot of money to his adventurism, and that presents a real risk of fragmentation in a regime that until now maintained subtle balances. With “his” war, Putin is making enemies from within, including very powerful oligarchs who will pay the price of his dreams of grandeur. Adding to this are the nuclear threats that he may be willing to carry out, but most of his entourage, who are supposedly more reasonable, probably would not.
The logical conclusion of all this is that the resentment and hostility and fear that Putin generates within the Russian elite constitutes a real risk for his maintenance in power in the coming weeks, months, and years. The probability of a palace coup or an oligarchic revolt is substantial. There may come a point where it appears to the population and the economic, military, and security elite, including within the Kremlin, that the only way to save Russia is to get rid of Putin. This war is his greatest error of judgement and could be his undoing. That is why I wrote that it will be “the beginning of the end” — his end.