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Putin has enacted new laws with stiff penalties for airing news with "misinformation," which has caused the somewhat independent news networks operating in Russia to close, their directors literally fleeing the country as it's likely they would be jailed.
Rumors are that Putin will declare martial law soon. To the average Russian, this isn't going to seem like their dictator has gone mad. It's going to seem like Ukraine is attacking the good Russians of eastern Ukraine, we were trying to defend them and then the evil US came in and now we're at the brink of WWIII.
The question is how much from the internet trickles through anyway. How many Russians are aware of what's going on? Protests are met with immediate arrest, so what are the chances that increases? I'm sure they're working on a way to filter internet access the way China does.
As long as Xi props up the Russian economy and there's a market for Russian oil, coal and gas, Putin can do this. We can admire Ukrainian resolve as they suffer what we can't even imagine, but I don't see how they can hold up because Putin is clearly willing to bomb apartment buildings and cut off supply lines.
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