“Russia’s economic deterioration will continue and will worsen as the clock ticks. There is currently no path for recovery. Putin has lost his place as a world power. The Damocles sword is there and it is getting heavier and heavier. The question is ultimately whether he is ultimately a realist or will enter the history books as self destructive fool. At this point no commentator knows the answer.”
Hersh closed his analysis with a stark historical reminder: “Putin knows the ghost in the Kremlin closet: Revolution.”