[simonh]

Russia doesn't need to save itself, it's not under any existential threat. Sanctions will hurt, but they'll live. The ordinary people will suffer worst, and the elite will have to make do without holidays in France and Italian marble counter tops, but their positions depend on maintaining the oppressive state system.

[viraptor]

That sounds reasonable, but I wonder what the real elite-government interaction will be like soon. Oligarchs prop up what the government was doing in exchange for government not bothering them. If there's enough economic impact that they can't be the sponsors of Putin... that agreement may fail.