Vladimir Putin's state development corporation chief economist has said Russia won't win the war in Ukraine – and the country is facing an explosive 'crisis', similar to those which led to the 1917 and 1991 revolutions. In a searing attack on the Kremlin's strategy, Andrei Klepach made clear Moscow is doomed without a change of direction.
War of attrition
He also dismissed Putin's suggestion that Ukraine and its Western supporters would eventually buckle. 'We will not win this competition in this war of attrition,' he said. 'We have this illusion that everything there will collapse. It has not collapsed and will not collapse.'
'The conflict in Ukraine with the participation of NATO has already lasted longer than World War Two, and so far its end is not in sight.' He claimed Putin could make the same mistake as Tsar Nicholas II and senile Soviet rulers, who both steered the country in the wrong direction.
Social crisis warning
Russia is almost certainly facing a social crisis at the same time the Kremlin believed its system remained secure. He compared the danger with the February Revolution of 1917, which toppled the Romanov dynasty, and the crumbling of the USSR in 1991.
'No one expected the February Revolution either,' he said, recalling that Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin had doubted he would live to witness a revolution only weeks before it began. 'The situation in the Soviet Union in 1991 — we had been heading towards it slowly and consistently, and everyone understood that we were heading towards a crisis, but there was no fatal inevitability that the Soviet Union would collapse.'
He added: 'I believe Russia will not fall apart, but I am almost certain that we will face a social crisis.'
Rare criticism from insider
Criticism such as Klepach's, first reported in the Moscow Times, is rare – especially from an insider such as himself. He has held key posts in government and the central bank as well as at arms-maker Almaz-Antey, the Tactical Missiles Corporation and state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom. He is currently chief economist at VEB.RF, the Kremlin's state development corporation that finances major Putin projects and plays a central role in supporting Russia's faltering economy.
