Russia’s #war against #Ukraine has unleashed a battle not only between two armies and two societies, but also between two generations of leaders. Indeed, a striking age gap divides Russia and Ukraine’s top brass. Vladimir #Putin’s close associates and key officials were largely born in the 1950s and 1960s. Whereas the most important positions in the Ukrainian leadership and on Volodymyr #Zelensky’s team are, for the most part, occupied by people born in the 1970s and 1980s. But there’s also another clash of generations, one occurring not at the interstate level, but inside #Russia itself. Putin’s contemporaries are afraid to relinquish power and bequeath it to those who should be their successors. Instead, they’ve worked to bring the younger generations of would-be leaders to heel, pushing them to the margins of public space or driving them out of the country altogether.

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/06/06/who-is-putin-really-fighting #society #ussr #history #navalny