Putin is betting Russia can out-suffer Ukraine

IT HASN’T been an encouraging week for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Amid strikes and counterstrikes with Ukraine, Russia threatened that the UK “will pay” for supplying its opponent with the drones that have allowed attacks deep inside his country.

The chief economist of the country’s second-largest bank, Andrey Klepach, was sacked for saying that Russia cannot win a “war of attrition” and that it could prompt a social crisis.

And a rumour that the government would expropriate citizens’ savings to pay for the continuing conflict sent Russians running to the banks to empty their accounts.