Pandemic Tests Putin’s Grip on Power

Financial Times: “In the space of two months Covid-19 has laid waste to both ​Vladimir Putin’s political agenda and the economic model that underpins his regime, turning 2020 from a year scripted to usher in another decade of Putin rule into one that could undermine his supremacy.”

Said one foreign ambassador in Moscow: “It is pretty clear that this year has not gone to plan at all as far as Putin is concerned. The pandemic has had far more of an impact than he had hoped, and the economic fallout from all of this is going to be even bigger.”