Anecdotally, the people I know who recently visited Moscow and St Petersburg claim they're not seeing significant struggle, and definitely not the 'risk your life for violent revolution' type of issues.
Because they are rich people who are in the rich parts of the richest cities. I’m sure if you walked the streets of Moscow in 1988 you wouldn’t see any significant struggle among the elite.
I am not sure what is "the Russian party elite". Regardless, how is this related to what people would see walking the streets in Moscow? (lines to the stores, people selling their belongings or random shit they have got in lieu of salary at work, delipidated buildings, literal open dirt everywhere etc).
I do. I am, again, not sure what does this have to do with the topic. I now suspect you are trying to derail in an attempt to hide your ignorance of the state of Moscow in 1988. There is no need to degrade the forum for that. Just be careful to not talk about things you don't know about next time!
Moscow and St Petersburg will be the absolute last places where you will see people struggle precisely because Putin knows it's important to keep those cities prosperous even if it's at the cost of people living outside of the major cities.
Sure, but that's already 20% of population counting metro area. Add other well off areas, university towns, upper class in small towns, etc. and it doesn't seem to be looking super bad in the short term for them.