Putin is 'startled' by antiwar protests in Russia — and terrified of 'uprising' against him: Historian

On Thursday's edition of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," David Remnick, a historian who has written extensively about Soviet history, broke down how Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine is already creating domestic problems for him.

"You heard President Biden talk about this in his speech today, Putin's desire to remake the Soviet Union," said Cooper. "Do you think that is actually — I mean it may be an ideological aim — do you think it's an actual realistic thing he thinks he can achieve?"

"I think in a sense that what Biden seemed to be talking about the re-creation of this old Soviet Union -- and all 15 of what were republics and what are now independent nations -- is not only impossible but crazily expensive," said Remnick. "Why did empires collapse all over the world, historically, not only the Soviet Union but Austria-Hungary and all the rest? Empire is expensive. Russia is not a wealthy country. Its entire economy is the size of the economy of Texas. And most of those resources come right out of energy extractions and very fragile economy for a country that large. Today we saw the ruble crater. We saw the Russian stock market crater."

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Remnick then turned to the signs of dissent in the streets of major Russian cities.

"We also saw something very curious, and I have to say maybe even unexpected," continued Remnick. "Despite the continuing crackdown on dissent in Russia that's been going on for years, we saw protests of modest scale in dozens of Russian cities. And over — according to one report over 1,500 arrests, brutal arrests and so on. So to see politics on the street is, I think, startling to Vladimir Putin as what he dreads the most, what he fears the most is some kind of uprising against him. And so we — we're coming to a reckoning here where internal Russian politics are concerned, too."

"The question here that has to be at the center is, what does Vladimir Putin think he's doing? Toward what end?" added Remnick. "How, in any way, does this help bring prosperity or even security to Russia? What threat is he responding to? Was Ukraine threatening Russia? Was NATO threatening Russia? No. I think that Putin, in large measure — not to make this into a novel — but in large measure, is responding to his own self-drama as a man of great power and wanting to expand Russian power, revive Russian power, after his failure to bring prosperity to Russia after 22 years in power."

Watch below:

Historian says Putin is "startled" by domestic protests against his warwww.youtube.com