Putin doesn’t care as long as he is in power and can live in luxury
The war hasn’t improved Putin’s living conditions. This war has much more to do with Russians biter over the end of the USSR than Putin wanting to live like Elon Musk.
Just for starters, he can’t travel to NATO states anymore. Interbank lenders have cut Russian financial institutions out of their network, so he can’t get cheap USD loans. Russia is functionally out of the G8, which means he’s not flying up to Jackson Hole for Davos Summits or wining and dining in Paris or Rome or Brussels with the other Euro-snobs administering the West. Then there’s just the broad national balance sheet - refineries are getting blown up, military readiness is degraded which makes those parades a bit lackluster, and he’s doing far fewer ribbon cuttings on vanity projects in Moscow given the possibility of assassination attempts.
Bush Jr Era Putin was having a much better time than Trump v2 Era Putin.
The war hasn’t improved Putin’s living conditions. This war has much more to do with Russians biter over the end of the USSR than Putin wanting to live like Elon Musk.
But has it worsened his living conditions? He is so obscenely rich that a few billions more or less won’t make much of a difference.
Just for starters, he can’t travel to NATO states anymore. Interbank lenders have cut Russian financial institutions out of their network, so he can’t get cheap USD loans. Russia is functionally out of the G8, which means he’s not flying up to Jackson Hole for Davos Summits or wining and dining in Paris or Rome or Brussels with the other Euro-snobs administering the West. Then there’s just the broad national balance sheet - refineries are getting blown up, military readiness is degraded which makes those parades a bit lackluster, and he’s doing far fewer ribbon cuttings on vanity projects in Moscow given the possibility of assassination attempts.
Bush Jr Era Putin was having a much better time than Trump v2 Era Putin.