Why Didn’t the Ukraine War Turn Russia’s Ruling Class Against Putin? A book written by a former Kremlin insider

This is a very good question! Why are the Russian people so lethargic and apathetic to get rid of this megalomaniac and war criminal Putin the Terrible!

Please Russians make the world a better place of peace and prosperity for all! Millions of Russian soldiers were already killed or maimed for what?

Maybe Russia needs a second revolution!

"Alexandra Prokopenko’s From Sovereigns to Servants: How the War Against Ukraine Reshaped Russia’s Elite was published in Russian on December 1, 2025, and the English edition will be released in July 2026. In the book, Prokopenko—a researcher and fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center—writes about how Russian bureaucrats and businesspeople (those now often called “technocrats” who would formerly have been referred to as “in-system liberals”) became the servants of Russian President Vladimir Putin, carrying out the orders of an autocrat, even when they disagree with his decisions. ...

Prokopenko herself might once have been described as a “young technocrat,” having worked for several years as an adviser at Russia’s central bank. However, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she quit her job and left the country. Before working for the central bank, Prokopenko spent eight years as a reporter in the Kremlin pool (a group of journalists covering Putin), where she met sources at the highest level of the Russian government and wrote articles about them—until her accreditation was revoked in 2017. ...

Prokopenko suggests that fear is the major factor—in addition to sanctions—that caused the aristocracy to rally around Putin after the start of the war. This is not only the fear of losing one’s career, property, or even life. It is the fear of “social death.” One of Prokopenko’s interlocutors compared being part of Russia’s ruling class to being a member of the mafia; another said officials who lose their jobs suddenly see their telephones go quiet. Either way, being employed provides a sense of being part of an influential group, whose members are united by a shared secret. That secret is knowledge of how the system really operates: informally, illegally, and with procedural violations. ...

For one, the apparent suicide of the dismissed transport minister Roman Starovoit in 2025 ..."

Why Didn’t the Ukraine War Turn Russia’s Ruling Class Against Putin? | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace "A new book by Alexandra Prokopenko looks at why the Russian ruling class became the regime’s willing servants—and how they might fare in a post-Putin world."

Alexandra Prokopenko