Could Russia be losing its hard-won post-Cold-War status as a great power? As the bad news for Vladimir Putin piles up, the question of Russian decline—and its implications for world geopolitics—is coming into focus.
Recent weeks have been nightmarish for the Russian leader. Kyiv’s drone strikes deep into Russian territory have disrupted the lives of millions of Russians who had been told they were winning a war against a weak and ineffectual Ukraine. The unrelenting pace of military casualties continues to bleed Russia’s declining population without significant battlefield advances. As blackouts and fuel shortages hobble Russian-occupied Crimea—where desperate tourists and residents are struggling to escape the hard-hit peninsula via war-damaged routes—Mr. Putin faces his greatest political challenge since Boris Yeltsin handed him the keys to the Kremlin in 1999.