Russians are simultaneously more and less stupid than they seem to be at the same time. They are really run by the intelligence services, and they often "test narratives" to see how messaging goes over with the populations. They use deliberate 'repeaters', messengers and role players within their sociey to gague themes to try and advance their goals. You see public figures following their scripts consistently, from froth-mouthed apocalyptic lunatics like Solovyev and Medvedev threatening to end the world, down to malcontent grunt Z-Bloggers like Girkin muttering tactical level failures, acting as a release valve for the failings of the state 'not going far enough'. The ones who are allowed to speak on an ongoing basis are sanctioned to do so, for reasons that make sense to the FSB.
Until recently, any public talk of even ACKNOWLEDGING, much less ending the SMO/ aka "War" would get you locked up for discrediting the army. Now, they are starting to seep out war-ending off-ramp strategies. This is the first time I've seen one around the idea that the war should be stopped "for the good of the economy". That sounds more high minded than verboten military or moral alternatives like "we're losing" or "it's the humane thing to do". At any rate, it's at least tolerated public dialogue that explicitly talks of ending the war. None of these narrative tests are accidental - some are outbursts, where the messager is locked up or killed - but this is different in that it's from a named public figure.
Having them say "it's for the good of the economy" allows them to at least try to avoid the humiliation of a completely stalled front that they have been unable to move substantially for nearly two years. It ignores their invasion's absolute failure, doesn't acknowledge that maybe little brother ukraine isn't an inherently inferior race, or that the entire country ackshually belongs to Rusia, because - reasons - and doesn't have a right to exist. It doesn't even mention NATO as the REAL reason why they aren't vacationing in Kyiv today.
It's all a colossal tragedy, of course. But putting that aside - it's both funny and somewhat pathetic that this is where they're at more than four years in having squandered their entire soviet inhertiance on a petty 20th century revenge project led by an overpromoted gangster ghoul. But - it's also a good thing that they're openly talking about how to exit an aggressive war of invasion while being WELL short of their goals of conquest.
Will be interesting to see if this "for the economy" theme persists as a face-saving tactic. What do you think?
Zelensky has also been floating the idea of talks lately.
true. but - he has said so for years. And his negotiating position is FAR stronger than it was in 2023/2024. And he doesn't seem to be particularly starved for them. Trump tried to stiff-arm him into a bad peace, but as usual, he tries to negotiate with leverage he doesn't actually have. He pulled direct U.S. support, and removed Russian oil sanctions, but the mainly-Euro supported version of the Ukranian army in 2026 can probably resist the current version of the Russian army for a long time yet.
Of course any reasonable leader would say they want the war to end - but Zelensky can be a LOT more assertive about how this goes going forwards than the russians can.
Russia is S-C-R-E-W-E-D, and they know it. Destroyed their army. Spent their 30-year war chest. Destroyed their diplomatic and political capital. Destroyed their entire soviet hardware inheritance. Destroyed their primary energy export markets. Became vassals to China. Lost Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Armenia. Is losing Africa. Lost power projection generally. Lost the Black Sea Fleet. Lost dozens of their strategic nuclear deterrent aircraft. Lost their AWACS. Destroyed/lost 1 million+ laborers for their economy. Have already extracted the easiest-to-get-to oil and gas and everything is harder from here on out. Their demographics were already terminal, and they supercharged the loss of human capital by failing to re-acquire a new colony to offset the losses of their slave army.
Hell - their entire way of war has been destroyed. Their myth of national inevitability. Their philosophy was Horde War - that it didn't matter if your stuff was worse than NATO's, as long as you had enough of it. They presumed they could march from Poland to Paris to Portugal before the feckless pussies in NATO could even start to respond. Well - it turns out they can't even get to the Dneiper river right next door. They are a 20th century army fighting a 21st century war with 7th century brutality, and rebuilding a modern army will take longer than Putin has left to live. The entire concept of just marching a man forward and hoping the land turns from blue to red like you're in a video game is itself obsolete in a world where cheap drones at scale have made invading and holding territory essentially a dead concept. They've not only lost this war - they've lost the 21st century.
You'd like a real satisfying ending where the black tower of mordor crumbles and the orcs scurry back eastwards to feud amongst each other rather than invading the neighbours - but that's movie stuff. The core principle that russia has already lost the war is true, if way more boring IRL.