Kathrine Frich
The purge has hit elites who once seemed invincible.
Absolute power usually demands total loyalty. For decades, a tight circle of friends has quietly run the show from the shadows.
But when the pressure rises, even the strongest alliances can shatter overnight, leaving a brutal survival game unfolding at the very top of the political ladder.
Spiders in a jar
According to former Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko cited by Daily Express, the Russian president is watching his inner circle tear itself apart.
The evidence is hiding in plain sight. Sharing his analysis on the social platform X, he pointed to a recent wave of arrests targeting highly connected figures.
“The Kremlin is now like spiders in a jar. A war of all against all has started among the Kremlin elite, accompanied by unprecedented arrests of people who were close to Putin,” Gerashchenko wrote.
Nobody is safe
The purge has hit elites who once seemed invincible.
Ilya Traber is a prime example. The wealthy businessman has known the Russian leader since the 1990s, and Gerashchenko noted that Traber was detained by state security forces earlier this year.
“He was long considered completely ‘untouchable,'” the former official observed.
“They used to believe they were ‘untouchable’ and that this status was guaranteed. Now everyone understands it is only a matter of time before they are targeted,” he said.
Sweeping defense arrests
The military leadership is facing a similar shakeup. High-ranking commanders are rapidly falling from grace.
“As part of a large-scale campaign under the pretext of fighting corruption and embezzlement, nearly the entire inner circle of former defence minister Shoigu has ended up either in pretrial detention or under house arrest,” Gerashchenko explained.
One former deputy defense minister, Timur Ivanov, recently received a massive jail sentence.
He “was sentenced to 13 years in prison for accepting an especially large bribe (more than 1.3 billion roubles ($16.6 million)) and transferring funds abroad,” according to the expert.
A fractured system
The crackdown stretches beyond Moscow. Governors and mayors are getting caught in the crossfire.
Local leaders in Sochi and Ufa have faced recent corruption charges. Gerashchenko believes this chaos points to a massive scramble for shrinking resources.
He claims the old rules of loyalty no longer apply, and that this sudden wave of arrests “suggests that the system has begun to crack”.
“Putin is persecuting and eliminating his ‘old friends’ while becoming even more fearful for his own life. We’ll see how it ends,” he concluded.
Sources: The Daily Express, X
