[tim333]

I don't remember hearing he's losing his grip in the past. He always seemed pretty secure as dictator for life with any serious opponents like Navaly or Boris Nemtsov being killed in various ways. There seems more criticism now. Like from "Ilya Remeslo, a longtime Kremlin attack lawyer and propagandist":

>I have the impression that part of the system is already starting to work against Putin … It’s essentially … similar to what happened at the end of the Soviet Union, when people hated the [Communist] Party and did everything for it to end. Putin’s Russia will follow the same path as the Soviet Union. Everything is being repeated.