Worried about growing pressure on the regime, Putin promotes trusted people from the younger generation to the circle of power

Russian President Vladimir Putin is consolidating his grip on power by promoting younger generation loyalists amid growing instability inside the Kremlin as he ages, Fox News reports.

Vladimir Putin turned 73 in October ARCHIVE PHOTO

Britain's The Telegraph recently reported that Putin, 73, who has ruled Russia for more than two decades, is “running out of cards” as pressure on his regime mounts both domestically and internationally.

In this context, it is telling that the Federal Security Service (FSB) recently opened a criminal case against exiled dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky and 22 members of the Anti-War Committee, accusing them of conspiring to seize power in Russia. Khodorkovsky spent a decade in a Siberian prison before leaving Russia for Britain. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he founded the Anti-War Committee, an activist and humanitarian organization.

John Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center and former US ambassador to Ukraine, recently told the British publication that the latest developments show that “the Kremlin is slipping into paranoia.”

“Everyone around him started thinking about the prospect of a world beyond Putin, so he organized his own elite in a very careful way, so that there was no place for cracks to occur,” Henry Hale, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, told Fox News Digital.

“His people are mixed in a way that makes it very difficult for any faction to operate autonomously, in a way that could threaten the regime. At the same time, members of his own family are now starting to rise through the ranks. Among those who have attracted the most significant attention is Anna Evgenievna Tsiviliova, née Putina,” the analyst explained.

Tsiviliova, 52, is Putin's first cousin and currently heads the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation, a state-controlled organization that supports Russian soldiers and veterans.

Previously, she was the chairman of the board of Kolmar Group, one of the largest coal companies in Russia.

“Young people are being raised by the older generation, perfectly integrated into the pyramid of power. Putin is worried about what happens as they get older, or if they don't give young people opportunities to rise, then the regime risks coming under pressure. These people are trustworthy because they are related to people close to Putin, and in addition, they are young and energetic,” Hale pointed out.

In 2023, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Putin confidant, initiated a short-lived uprising, sending his fighters toward Moscow before retreating abruptly, only to later die in a plane crash.

Currently, the Kremlin's focus is on silencing opposition abroad.

“Tensions remain within the elite, and Putin wants to eliminate any potential risks. The 2023 incident was a warning from Putin to his own elite, his own inner circle, not to dare try anything. Putin and his people watch each other very carefully, and therefore do not try anything suspicious,” Hale explains.

Russia's economy is in trouble following the first sanctions from the US

Russia is also under immediate economic pressure – from new Western sanctions and the prospect of reduced revenues from oil sales, on top of the costs of the war. All these factors are likely to push Russia into recession.

The Treasury Department under President Donald Trump recently imposed sanctions on Russia's biggest oil producers, Rosneft and Lukoil, in an attempt to put consistent pressure on the Kremlin to end the war in Ukraine.

According to reports, the Russian government may take measures such as tax hikes and increased borrowing to cover the deficit.

“Putin has overcome the main crisis that the full-scale invasion of Ukraine brought to Russia, the initial shock and the failure to conquer Ukraine within days. But war brings with it uncertainty and there is a risk of a disastrous defeat, below expectations. All the people around him are starting to imagine a world beyond Putin. Given all these things, my view is that Putin's regime is quite stable at this point,” concluded Hale.