While the tide seems to be turning towards Russia on the battlefield in Ukraine, I am really curious about how long it will take before the sanction regime begins to seriously effect Russia's ability to govern. For example, how do you govern a country that is eleven time zones long if you can't maintain commercial aircraft? What will happen to society in Russia's far east if it becomes a several days journey from Moscow?
Of course that's assuming the sanction regime stays in place long enough for most Russian domestic planes to run out of parts needed for maintenance, and I have no idea how long it will take to get to that point. But it will happen eventually. Can the modern Russian state stay in control if it cannot immediately crack down on a lot of its far-flung territory?
And yeah, this is now playing on endless repeat in my head.
