Putin Trapped: The Oligarchs Are Finally Cracking - Jason Jay Smart

[TexasTowelie]

The catastrophic situation inside Russia is accelerating toward an undeniable economic collapse. Public services and even public transportation are beginning to suffer. More crucially, we are witnessing an unprecedented, all-out crackdown on free speech and an insane level of digital monitoring. Tech titan Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram and VKontakte, has publicly come out with a grave statement, confirming that authorities are trying to clamp down on basic freedoms. This is not just political suppression; it is a desperate attempt to hide a rapidly deteriorating economic disaster from the population.

The Kremlin wants to project an image of stability, but the numbers show a total catastrophe. The Moscow Stock Exchange recently lost 1% of the country’s GDP in a matter of hours, fueled by souring sentiment that the war might not end soon. The Russian business community is attempting to flee, realizing that getting paid in devaluing rubles is making commerce impossible. With non-indexed pensions losing value every day and regions begging Moscow for bailouts due to a lack of liquidity, the entire country is functioning like a financial Ponzi scheme.

It is clear that everything happening today is not for Russia's national interest, but purely for the self-interest of one man: Vladimir Putin. This war of terrorism is waged to benefit his mafia clan. We analyze the immense and unique pressure on Putin from the one group he truly must fear: the oligarchy. The system is buckling under the weight of this delusion.

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
01:25 Kremlin Hard Line Crashes Moscow Stock Exchange
02:16 Moscow Launches New Wave of Terrorism on Ukraine
05:23 Ukraine Strikes Back: Targeting Russia's War Factories
07:10 Why the West Won't Seize Russia's $300B Assets
08:56 Russia's "Stability" Illusion: Pavel Durov Warns on Free Speech
12:51 The Nemtsov Tragedy: How Yeltsin Chose Putin's Mafia
15:12 Outro