BEWARE! Russia is Militarizing FAST - Could this Lead to a Systemic Collapse?

Lough is currently Senior Research Fellow and Head of Foreign Policy & International Partnerships at the New Eurasian Strategies Centre (NEST Centre). He leads its foreign-policy work and international partnerships. He remains an Associate Fellow in Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme. ---------- LINKS: https://nestcentre.org/author/john-lo... https://nestcentre.org/ LinkedIn: john-lough-6201804 https://www.chathamhouse.org/about-us... ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconc... Patreon: siliconcurtain https://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up... ---------- DESCRIPTION: Jonathan interviews John Lough, senior research fellow and head of foreign policy at the New Eurasian Strategies Center (NEST), founded with seed funding from Mikhail Khodorkovsky to bring Russian expertise into Western policy debates and assess what Russia may look like after Putin. Lough describes NEST’s use of AI tools to analyze Telegram and state-media narratives, and discusses recent surprises such as mobile internet shutdowns and the late removal of the Yabloko party from ballots, interpreting them as signs of Kremlin nervousness amid increasing militarization efforts. He argues authorities push a “Russia vs NATO” message while society is less invested in the war, though strikes inside Russia and war-related financial beneficiaries complicate public mood. The conversation covers elite discontent, Putin’s confidence in weakening Western institutions, mobilization risks, Ukraine’s deep strikes, and conditions under which Russia’s brittle system could miscalculate and destabilize. ---------- CHAPTERS: 00:00 Welcome Back John Lough 00:44 What Is NEST Center 03:09 Tracking Kremlin Signals 04:45 Surprises Inside Russia 08:15 Militarizing Society 13:10 Public Mood And Elites 16:18 War Winners And Losers 22:52 Putin And Global Shift 27:42 Mobilization Question 38:30 Can Russia Break First 44:33 Wrap Up And Support ---------- TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND: Car4Ukraine https://car4ukraine.com/en-US/campaigns Dzyga's Paw https://dzygaspaw.com/projects Superhumans - Hospital for war traumas https://superhumans.com/en/ UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukraine https://unbroken.org.ua/ Come Back Alive https://savelife.in.ua/en/ Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/relief/activation-che... UNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyy https://u24.gov.ua/ Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation https://prytulafoundation.org NGO “Herojam Slava” https://heroiamslava.org/ ---------- PLATFORMS: Substack: https://substack.com/@siliconcurtain Twitter: Twitter: CurtainSilicon Linkedin: LinkedIn: finkjonathan Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6... ----------