What does Putin do next? Welcome to The i Paper’s opinion series in which our writers and experts take a deeper look at the future for the Russian leader. • Putin is getting more desperate. It won’t end well• Furious Putin is trapped in a gilded cage. Only death will free him• Putin and Xi’s bromance could fall apart – and it’s all down to Trump• I’m an Eastern European – I know what Putin plans for my country• Putin has made a vast strategic error. This relationship shows us why• Putin’s fortress Russia has one weakness: The enemy within• The worst war the Soviets ever fought is now haunting Putin

What does Putin do next? Welcome to The i Paper’s opinion series in which our writers and experts take a deeper look at the future for the Russian leader.

• Putin is getting more desperate. It won’t end well• Furious Putin is trapped in a gilded cage. Only death will free him• Putin and Xi’s bromance could fall apart – and it’s all down to Trump• I’m an Eastern European – I know what Putin plans for my country• Putin has made a vast strategic error. This relationship shows us why• Putin’s fortress Russia has one weakness: The enemy within• The worst war the Soviets ever fought is now haunting Putin

Russia is now more than four years into a full-scale war with Ukraine – a protracted conflict following an invasion it was confident would lead to a total victory in weeks, if not days. The conflict has become a long, grinding war of attrition, with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of casualties on both sides in what has become the 21st century equivalent of trench warfare.

One result of this is that Russia has become a nation with a wartime economy. Defence now accounts for almost 40 per cent of all government spending, and military spending has reached around 7 per cent of GDP – more than three times the level of most Nato members.

Beyond that, sanctions have reshaped the wider Russian economy. It has been cut off from most of the global financial system, and has had overseas assets seized or frozen across the world. Europe has largely weaned itself off Russian oil and gas, forcing the country........

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