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Putin’s Oligarchs Fall in Line

The shock and disgust that many Russian elites felt at the beginning of the war—at the notion that Putin had just single-handedly made a disastrous decision that would destroy their own country—has abated. “The universal position is to trust their commander in chief.”

Russians in Putin’s governing class have begun to feel that, even if the initial blitzkrieg failed, things are back on track.
Russians in Putin’s governing class have begun to feel that, even if the initial blitzkrieg failed, things are back on track. Photo: Contributor/Getty Images
Julia Ioffe
February 28, 2023

Friday marked a year since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine turned the Western world upside-down. Much has changed inside Russia, too. Up to one million Russians have fled the country, a wave of emigration that rivals the one that followed the Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks seized power. Russia has lost about a quarter million men to death and injury on the front—up from around 100,000 in October.