The war created chaos in Russia - disintegration?

He wanted to see Russia fall apart.
"Dick wanted to see the collapse not only of the Soviet Union, but of Russia itself, so that it would never again be a threat to the rest of the world," CIA Director Robert Gates wrote in his memoirs.
"Dismantling" was also a favorite topic of Vladimir Putin, who during his rule presented himself as the protector of Russian territory and used it to justify his war against Ukraine as an essential measure against the existential threat.
On the eve of the invasion, the head of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, rejected the crisis talks with the United States, claiming: "They are hiding their specific goal, and that is the disintegration of the Russian Federation."
In the fourth month of the increasingly bloody conflict with no obvious prospects for a solution, the idea of dividing Russia came to life again. The "hawks" in European research centers claim that this is both sustainable and desirable, and American officials have expressed support for the idea. Russia's dissident newspaper, the Moscow Times, recently published a column predicting that the war would "lead to the end of the country itself."

Foto: Profimedia

There are also indications of an independence movement in the Russian republics. The federation consists of 85 provinces, 22 of which are republics, each of which represents a different ethnicity. They gained autonomy after the fall of the USSR. However, minorities in the republics are protesting that the state is plundering their resources and neglecting their needs.
The war heightened that resentment. The poorer provinces have suffered the economic consequences of sanctions and have borne the brunt of Russian casualties in Ukraine. The highest number of deaths was...