Source: Breakingviews: Russia’s economy would struggle to cope with peace
The wartime economy poses an addiction akin to heroin, or even alcohol, withdrawal from which is attended by pain so severe that the addict relapses: resorts to feeding the addiction rather than leaving it. In the excellent analysis linked above, Russia–Putin–finds itself at a painful crossroads. Fighting further erodes the civilian economy further, but opting for peace puts enormous pressure on the government to help rebuild the civilian economy quickly enough to keep social unrest at bay. Key to such a rebuilding program is accountability on behalf of corporations and government. Such accountability is simply nonexistent in Russia, and it behooves Putin and his cronies to fight for “victory” in Ukraine rather than risk exposing Russians to the rampant culture of corruption in Russia. (Alternately and charitably, risk Russians lose in the world economy because they have become dependent on the wartime economic cocaine.)
Dreams of empire comprise the most powerful and most perverse intellectual opiate. Democracies that fail to exclude empire addicts from their leadership will sadly fail.