"“No one is happy with the status quo,” the Russian state official said. “It is clear that a military or political victory will not be possible. But a loss is not possible either. This is turning into the situation in chess known as zugzwang, when each step is worse than the next and yet it is impossible not to move.”
The optimism of the summer when, according to a second state official, many in the country’s elite believed “we’ll turn everything around and find a way” has completely evaporated. “People see there is no future,” he said.
The forced mobilization has already dealt a blow to Putin’s popularity, one of the main bases for his legitimacy as president, and when the dead bodies of reservists begin to return from the front, the situation could worsen, the Moscow businessman said.
“In several months, there will be a very negative dynamic in Russia: a worsening of the mood in society,” he said. “Everything depends on the front.”