[olddustytrail]

> For example, if Putin dies tomorrow, who is going to gain the power? We don't know.

Mikhail Mishustin. The Prime Minister of Russia takes over in the event of the President being indisposed and acts as temporary President until the President recovers or a new one is elected.

[cyberax]

That's why I specified "real power". Mishustin doesn't have it.

[olddustytrail]

Does he not? I'm not any kind of expert on Russian politics but would you have said the same of Putin when he was PM?

[cyberax]

Putin is holding his power because he set himself up as the final arbiter in conflicts between powerful "clans". This is largely unofficial power, that he holds personally (not due to institutions).

He is preventing anyone else from gaining similar levels of influence. For example, Mishustin's power was cut down by the changes Putin pushed into the Constitution in 2020.

Side note, this situation is 100% typical for autocracies. And once the autocrat dies, the country very often descends into chaos, simply because there are no institutions that are capable of resolving conflicts between groups without violence. Example: Libya.