I would agree with that. I think the Russian economy is not in great shape. I don't think it's ready to collapse anytime soon, but it is hurting. We shouldn't expect it to collapse, and we shouldn't think that sanctions are going to cause it to collapse.
I think the political situation, and the entire structure of how that system works, is very brittle. The government knows it, and it is very careful in how it creates a very strong propaganda narrative for its own people, at the same time as it has become highly authoritarian. I think it knows that the system is not as strong as it was before. They know that there are people who question now, but they're keeping it very clear that questioning can only go so far.
I think we shouldn't expect the country to fall apart anytime soon, but we should always be expecting.... This place has a very brittle political, social, and economic system. It has the ability to absorb shocks, and I think it will, but the Russian people know very little about the setbacks that the government has had in Ukraine and Syria, or about the casualties the Russian government and military have had.
Most of the interactions the senior leadership in Russia has are very highly scripted. They're not like the ones in a western system, where a senior leader will have to go out and meet the population. That very rarely happens in an unscripted environment, and I think their government is very careful not to allow that to happen.