is the broader russia population, including many that support putin, are they actually going to accept a costly war of choice? against a neighbor, and the resulting economic deprivation? or is it possible that at some point, vladimir putin and the russian government could lose control of the russian people? joining us now is ian, president of the racial group, a leading global research and consulting firm. he and, thanks for being here. you have studied this more than most. let s talk about this. let s say you can t get the real information, here in russia, for whatever reason, everything you read follows official line that this is a strategic operation in ukraine. it s not a war, it s not an innovation, but suddenly your credit card still work and you can buy stuff, and you can do stuff, and you can see stuff, and things aren t available on the shelves, and your interest rate is 20%, and your money is not worth anything. at some point, people are going to say, this official storyline
from a child. and in addition to a massive ground stop on worsening goods and services, the russian economy is showing a real strain. russian interest rates are now 24 cents. the rubble is worth less than a penny. massive inflation, the state media is trying to pose a positive spin on this invasion. it s called a special monday operation there. but even russian citizens who are fully bought into the state sponsored narrative are going to have trouble squaring up what that means, and why they can t use their mastercard anymore? and why they re running out of food and shops, and why their money is worth nothing of this is just a special military operation in ukraine. a large section of the russian but relation is also old enough to remember the cold war. and the soviet invasion of afghanistan, and what both of those things did to their economy. and how it all led to the collapse of the soviet union. you ve already seen more than 13,000 anti war protesters arrested across russia. that unr
to that i assume is what you are saying is if zelenskyy and the ukrainian government said in order to stop the bloodshed in order to stop the bombing of the cities will come to some deal with putin. otherwise we want the russians out. it seems to make a putin occupies part of ukraine at the end of us, that is something of a victory for him. again, paul, i think is going to be hard for russian forces other than probably the area there s a little more of a pro- russia population pretty think of a hard time based on what you seen so far occupation ukrainian character the baby something on the table ukrainians are willing to live with when it comes to some kind of neutral status where they don t become members of nato. but they have to be willing to live with that. spin it all right seth a johnson thanks so much appreciate the insight. as we come back resin by defense s decision not to send polish fighter jets to ukraine.
Russia-Ukraine crisis: More than a dozen telecoms providers on both sides of the Atlantic are either providing free international calls to Ukraine or are scrapping roaming charges with the country