When someone like Boris Bondarev, a Russian counselor to the United Nations in Geneva, slams the door on his employer, the Russian Foreign Ministry, and on his home country, it¡¯s only natural to wonder if Vladimir Putin¡¯s system is showing cracks three months into the dictator¡¯s disgraceful Ukraine adventure.
The answer, however, is ¡°not really.¡± Despite the relative failure of the invasion so far, prominent defectors are remarkably few in number. The Russian establishment is not about to implode.
For most of the Putin-era breed of establishment figure, carrying on has more upside than defecting.
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