Russian Elites Want to SURRENDER… Putin’s War Is Making Them POOR

The Military Show

Russia’s battlefield offensive continues, but a different kind of surrender may already be unfolding inside Russia. As economic pressure mounts, businesses, investors, and wealthy elites are scrambling to protect their money from the Kremlin’s growing demands. Are Putin’s own policies driving cracks within Russia’s power structure? In this video, we examine the latest reports, economic trends, and political dynamics shaping the war—and why financial pressure could become one of the Kremlin’s biggest challenges.  ⏱️ CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Russian Elites Withdraw 13 Billion Cash 02:13 - Ukraine Drone Strikes Cause 78 Billion Deficit 03:31 - Russian Oil Prices Drop to 50 Dollars 04:42 - Putin Imposes 20 Percent Windfall Tax 06:44 - How Putin Controls the Russian Oligarchs 11:16 - Will Putin Seize 40 Billion in Pensions?  Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join  #militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis #themilitaryshow  SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/U8TLCDW4

Transcript

00:00A surrender to Ukraine is coming. But it's not what you think. Putin isn't getting ready to pull

00:05his troops out. Can't. He's in a no-win situation and his only option is to keep pushing blindly

00:11into his own failure. But behind the scenes in Russia, a white flag has been raised and it's

00:16being waved with increasing ferocity. Russia's elites want to surrender to Ukraine. Putin is

00:23the reason why. His war is making them all poor and if there's one thing that Putin should have

00:28figured out by now, you can't keep messing with the rich and their money. Or they will turn on you

00:33and try to get away from the mess you made. The money men want out and it's all Putin's fault.

00:39That's according to a June 29th piece by the Moscow Times, which has revealed that many of Russia's

00:44business leaders are trying to get their money out of the country amidst a constant bombardment of

00:49drone strikes by Ukraine and Putin's increasingly draconian measures to siphon as much cash out of

00:55them as possible to fund his war. A massive deficit has developed in Russia's National

00:59Wealth Fund, these elites are pointing out, and Putin is increasingly looking to them to plug the gap

01:04so that he can keep his war going. There are now rumors swirling around that the Kremlin will soon

01:09start digging into the elite's private savings to fund his war and that Russia is already going so

01:15far as to confiscate deposits. As one Moscow businessman put it,

01:19The government may try to get my money by any means necessary. Everyone is thinking about how to

01:24withdraw their money and leave. And he's right. We've seen a lot of cash withdrawals happening in

01:29Russia recently. United24 media reports that Russians have collectively pulled $13 billion in cash out

01:36of Russian banks in 2026 up to June 8th. That marks a 30-year high for withdrawals, and it's far

01:43from

01:43coincidental. Russians of all stripes, from the elites down to everyday people, no longer trust their banks

01:50due to the potential that the Kremlin could commandeer their money at any time. Now they're getting their

01:55money out. Which is as clear a signal to Ukraine as we've yet seen that some of the most important

01:59people in Russia outside of Putin and his political clan are ready to surrender. They see the financial

02:05pain that Ukraine is causing, and they are now voting with their pocketbooks. All of this is happening amidst

02:11a series of events that indicate how what is already a bad situation for Russia, its economy and the

02:16people pulling out the money is only going to get worse. Ukraine's drone attacks on Russia's oil

02:22refining sector are becoming even more intense. Nine out of ten of Russia's largest oil refineries

02:27have now been hit, United24 media reports, and those strikes come alongside attacks on military

02:33facilities all across Russia. The authorities have only one response to all of this, spend more money

02:39on defenses. And that approach has led to Russia developing a $78 billion budget deficit between

02:45January and May that needs to be filled. The elites are looking at that gap, and they know

02:50that the Kremlin will be coming to them to fill it. They're not happy about it. As another

02:55Moscow businessman said, there are not enough air defense systems to protect our infrastructure,

02:59that is clear. Nobody knows what to do to increase production. This is a terrible situation

03:04that Putin and his inner circle did not seem to expect. They did not prepare for a long war,

03:10and they are not ready for a drone war. It's clear where he believes the blame lies,

03:14as he's pointing out that the Russian people are now suffering because Putin and his Kremlin cronies

03:18didn't have the foresight to see that Ukraine wouldn't just roll over, and that it would instead

03:23evolve into a nation that could hit Russia at will. That's the situation today, and the elites are now

03:28arguing that Russia has to react to this situation by raising the white flag. Other events are even

03:35less promising. Do you remember how the war in Iran was supposed to be Russia's savior? Oil prices

03:40rose around or above $100 per barrel when the Strait of Hormuz was closed off, and that was supposed to

03:46pump billions into the Russian economy and save Putin from his own ludicrous spending. That's not

03:51happening anymore. An agreement between the US and Iran has dropped the price of Ural's crude to around

03:56$50 per barrel, so the sun isn't shining anymore, and what little hay Russia managed to make has

04:01been quickly swallowed up. Speaking of the US, it has also been sending out signals that are like

04:06blaring warning lights to Russia's elite. Trump has actively praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr

04:12Zelensky for the way Ukraine is defending itself, and he signed a joint declaration with other heads

04:17of state in the Group of Seven to recognize Ukraine's sovereignty earlier in June. Trump used the

04:23same G7 meeting to hint that the US could resume oil sanctions on Russia that it had suspended

04:28during the height of the Strait of Hormuz crisis, which would be a hammer blow to a Russian oil

04:32industry that is already reeling following the collapse of its assumptions that the good times

04:37would keep rolling. Putin has also signaled that he wants to dip his dirty hands into the pockets of

04:42Russia's elites and business owners to plug the gaps we mentioned earlier. Back in April, United24 media

04:48reported that Russia is preparing to introduce a new windfall tax on what it deems to be excess profits.

04:54The elites and oligarchs won't be happy about that. They have previously proposed making voluntary

04:59contributions to the Russian war effort. Putin clearly doesn't trust that those contributions

05:04will be enough. Now, he is proposing a new tax that could climb as high as 20% on excess

05:09earnings,

05:10based on business's 2025 financial results. Russia has done this before, in both 2018-19 and 2021-20,

05:19delivering billions of dollars to the budget. But now, Putin is trying to play the same trick

05:24at a time when 75% of Russia's businesses reported a decline in revenue and profit, or outright direct

05:30losses, for 2025. A little over half of Russia's companies saw that they now face cash flow gaps in

05:362026, and still Putin wants more. There is only so much blood that can be squeezed out of this particular

05:43stone and Russia's elites are signaling that they want to surrender to Ukraine to protect their own cash.

05:48Those elites see that their leader has created a failing system, and that he now wants their

05:52money to help him pick up the pieces that he will inevitably drop, due to his Ukraine war tunnel

05:57vision. That's why they want out. They see the writing on the wall, because the short-sightedness

06:02that caused all of this is simply the Russian way. At least that's according to Tatiana Stanovaier,

06:07a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. She says that all of these problems stem

06:13from Putin holding the dominant role in all aspects of Russian governance, to the point where actual

06:18coordination between different branches of the government is weak. This is the eternal problem

06:22of the Russian authorities and a serious test for the Russian economy and population, Stanovaier says,

06:28adding, but the question is whether the authorities have a plan of action or understanding about how

06:33to deal with this. The Kremlin does not have a plan. That's what has Russia's elites so scared that

06:38they're sending out so many signals that they're willing to surrender to Ukraine and push Putin into

06:43giving up his senseless war. But really now, are the elites going to turn on Putin? He made them,

06:49and he can do what he wants to them, right? Well, not really. It's a lot more complicated than that,

06:54and we're going to explain why. Before we do, you are watching The Military Show,

06:58and we deliver the analysis that lies behind the headlines. Hit subscribe now to make sure that

07:03you don't miss any of our videos. It's absolutely true that Putin very smartly took control over the

07:09oligarchs in Russia when he came to power. In the 1990s, that new generation of money men and women

07:14had more power over Russia than the political leaders who appeared in the wake of the collapse of the

07:18Soviet Union. Putin identified this as a problem when he became Russia's president in 2000, and he

07:24soon got to work on fixing it. And he started early, as NPR reports the summer of 2000 saw Putin

07:30invite

07:3121 of Russia's richest men to a meeting at the Kremlin. Those men didn't know what was in store,

07:36probably another new leader asking for handouts. However, Putin wasn't what they expected.

07:41Russia's new leader gave the oligarchs a choice. Bend the knee and follow Putin's lead, and they could

07:46keep the billions, the mansions, and all of the trappings of wealth, but oppose him and there

07:51would be consequences. Those oligarchs who refused or who later backtracked on the deal

07:55often found themselves dying in mysterious circumstances or languishing in Siberian

08:01prisons under charges of corruption. And in the many years since that fateful meeting,

08:05Putin has only strengthened his iron grip over the oligarchs, to the point where the path to getting

08:10rich in Russia flows directly through the country's leader. As the Carnegie Endowment puts it,

08:15Russia's ruling elite is less a political or economic class today and more a collection of

08:20managers who do what Putin says and thus avoid scrutiny from anybody other than their leader.

08:25It's this parasitic relationship that Putin fostered that is the main reason why the richest in Russia

08:30haven't risen up against Putin, despite taking blow after blow to their bank accounts because of his war.

08:35Not much has changed in these relationships. Putin still holds sway over the major money men and women

08:40in Russia. But we're not seeing the Russian oligarchs migrate away from Putin in their masses,

08:45and they are not the only elites that Russia has. What we're seeing here is business people who are

08:50perhaps not multi-billionaires wanting to jump ship. It's these small and medium-sized business owners

08:55who run the companies that account for more than half of the jobs in the Russian economy.

08:59Small businesses alone contribute about a fifth of Russia's total economy, the Moscow Times reveals.

09:05And these are all companies that have to buy fuel and other products from the oligarchs overseeing the

09:09state-run interests and massive businesses granted to them by Putin. If these elites,

09:14more minor though they may be, are drawing their money out and surrendering, that's a massive problem

09:19for Putin. It's like taking the base away from a house of cards. The whole thing crumbles,

09:24and every card ends up on the floor. Putin has already seen many of these mid-level elites take

09:29flight. During the early months after he started his invasion, the UK reported that 15,000 of Russia's

09:35millionaires were trying to get out of the country. Again, these aren't the oligarchs, but they're still

09:40in the upper echelons of Russia's society. They're elites, financially speaking, and they want it out.

09:45Now, as Putin digs his hand deeper into the pockets of not only the millionaires who remain,

09:50but of those a little lower on the totem pole who feel that they've given enough,

09:53he's creating the perfect environment for those people who want to raise the white flag.

09:58Putin is making them poor, all for a war that none of them really want.

10:02All of this is happening because Putin and his cronies couldn't see what they were unleashing

10:06when they started their so-called Special Military Operation in February 2022. Ukraine was never

10:12supposed to become what it is today. Long-range drones weren't going to be hitting refineries

10:16every week. Russia wouldn't even be touched. The system that Putin created would work perfectly well,

10:21as long as the war was contained to Ukraine, even as billions were spent on the fighting and

10:26hundreds of thousands of Russians died. The elites would still get their share, but now the momentum of

10:31the war has shifted in Ukraine's favor. Slow progress on the ground for Russia,

10:35assuming it makes any progress at all, is being compounded by the burning oil, the travel

10:40disruptions, the fuel shortages, and all of these other examples of the war coming home to Russia

10:45when it was never supposed to leave Ukraine. It's not just that money is being spent on the war,

10:49it's that Ukraine's strategy is making it harder and harder for Russia to make more money,

10:54which has the knock-on effect of hurting the elites. Those who have been spoiled by Putin's

10:58system in the past are being stung by it now, and they aren't going to suffer much longer before

11:03they turn against their leader. They're already doing it by withdrawing cash and trying to hide

11:08their money. Putin, as ignorant as he often is, can see the way that the tide is turning and he's

11:13doing something to at least soothe the elites for a little longer so he can keep his war going.

11:18He's forcing the cost onto everyday people. Do you remember when we mentioned that Russian elites

11:22are pulling money out of their bank accounts because they're worried that the Kremlin will start seizing

11:26their cash to fund the war? They were onto something because the exact proposal has come

11:30down the Kremlin pipeline, and it'll be everyday people who are forced to swallow the cost.

11:35That's according to a June 29th RBC Ukraine report, which says that discussions about seizing

11:41cash from Russians have been held at the highest levels of the Russian government,

11:44as Putin desperately searches for ways to refill the national wealth fund

11:48and solve Russia's budget deficit problem. The proposals have been made by the leader of Russia's

11:53Communist Party, Gennady Zhiganov, who says that there is over $1.6 trillion just sitting in

11:58Russian bank accounts, waiting to be tapped up for the war effort.

12:02That money isn't being invested in production or anything else, not even in victory. This problem

12:06can be solved quickly. If I were president, I'd do it with a single decree. In wartime,

12:11he has the right to do so. He is the supreme commander-in-chief, Zhiganov declared.

12:16The Kremlin doesn't seem to be going that far, at least not yet. However, Russia's finance ministry is

12:21preparing a legislative framework that will allow it to tap into around $40 billion in Russian pension

12:26savings that are currently managed by private funds. Those funds will be transferred to a

12:31Kremlin-controlled pension system, thus allowing Putin to invest the money into businesses that

12:36support his war effort. The elites know what all of this means, which is why they are pulling their

12:41money out of bank accounts and calling for a surrender. But if Putin thinks that he can get

12:45away with taking yet another shot at the everyday Russian people with this kind of move, he's likely

12:50mistaken. This move won't help him. Not in the long term. It'll just create more angry Russians at

12:55a time when confidence in Putin is at lows not seen since the beginning of the invasion.

12:59Putin's approval ratings have been dropping for weeks now, the point where the Kremlin-backed

13:03Public Opinion Research Center has changed its polling methodology to add in-person household

13:08surveys to the telephone interviews it typically conducts. It's a lot easier to intimidate someone into

13:13saying they're happy with Putin when you're staring them in the face. Putin has been trying to quell

13:18the sour mood that is developing in Russia by making more public appearances in the last few weeks,

13:22albeit few outside of Moscow. Russia's leader is trying to use himself as the sugar to make

13:27the medicine go down for those who he wants to screw out of their money. It's a bold strategy,

13:33but after more than four years of war and the economic catastrophe that Putin has already created,

13:38you have to wonder how well it will work on a war-weary population. Through it all,

13:42Ukraine is just going to keep doing what it's doing, hit the money and the pressure on Putin

13:46will follow, forcing him into making the sorts of dumb decisions that turn everybody from the elites

13:51to the everyday people against him. The suffering that Ukraine is causing to Russia's more well-to-do

13:56is easily seen in Crimea, where photos of moneyed tourists crying because they can't get off the

14:02battered and isolated peninsula are starting to surface. The former commanding general of United

14:07States Army Europe Ben Hodges says that Ukraine's role in all of this now is to disprove the notion

14:12that Russian people are born and willing to suffer for their country. How far can that suffering go

14:18when Putin is pulling money out of your pockets and making your lives actively worse for a war that

14:23only he seems to care about? That's the question that Ukraine asks with every one of its strikes,

14:28with every battlefield victory, with every action that forces the Kremlin to dig a little deeper to fund

14:33Putin's war. Those who have suffered are being asked to do more, right up to the elites. That

14:38strategy can't work forever. A fall is coming for Putin, and his biggest problem is that he doesn't

14:44know what will cause it. Maybe those oligarchs who have been controlled for so long are plotting in

14:49the shadows because Putin's actions are starting to hurt them. Perhaps the elites a tier or two down

14:54are going to cripple Russia, as much by keeping their money away from Putin's clutches and surrendering

14:58to Ukraine's power as any sort of tangible uprising. While Ukraine may just keep pushing

15:03Putin to keep pilfering from his own people to the point where they can't take it anymore and have to

15:08rise up. Heck, the isolation of Crimea that we just mentioned may be enough to force a flood of

15:12Russians to flee back to the mainland via the Kerch Bridge, shattering the symbol of Russian dominance

15:17over Ukraine that Putin has been using to prop up his lies about the inevitability of Russian victory.

15:23Seeing the opposite of victory unfold along with all of the money issues could be enough to wake the

15:27Russian people up. The simple fact is that Putin is pissing off too many people inside Russia.

15:32The elites are riled up, and the everyday people are getting hammered financially. Putin is making

15:38them all poor, and he's on the verge of discovering why that's a really bad idea. It's not like Russia

15:43can recover from the economic problems that are making its elite surrender either. Something devastating

15:48is broken inside Russia, and there's simply no prospect of the country bouncing back until the war ends.

15:53The long-term consequences are as destructive as the short-term solutions, and you can find out

15:59why by watching our video. And if this video was your kind of thing, then subscribe to The Military Show

16:04to catch more of our analysis on how Russia is crumbling from the inside. And thank you as always for

16:09watching.

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended