Putin's panicked crackdown at home shows he's on the way out

It is not only civilians and lowly soldiers who are alarmed by the current situation. Last month, Russian Army General Leonid Ivashov, a staunch Kremlin critic, claimed widespread support among his fellow retired officers for his statement denouncing Putin’s “criminal policy” of pushing the country to war.

Both the 1980s and now have been marked by the demoralization of much of the Russian population. In the earlier period, one consequence was that a growing number of writers, artists, musicians and activists were exiled, emigrated or defected. Among them was Yuri Lyubimov, the director of the Taganka Theater that had staged artistically and politically daring productions until he lost his job and was expelled from the Communist Party. In April 1984, I interviewed him in Florence, where he was directing Rigoletto. His reflections then could easily apply to today’s Russia.

Lyubimov bemoaned the exodus of so many talented people from Russia, calling it “a national tragedy, the spiritual impoverishment of the nation.” Right now, many Russians are clamoring to get on the limited number of planes still able to fly out of the country. The exodus is even greater—and much more frantic—this time.