The greatest strength for Putin may be the weakness of the West - the message to Russia should be very clear, the West running is the worst thing, because Putin will take advantage, that's what Putin does. He will cross red lines if he sees he can. I think absolute clarity is needed and we should not be afraid of what he can do! - Jill Dougherty, an expert on Russian issues, said at the Rondeli Security Conference ongoing in Tbilisi.

According to her, Russia will not come to the West with tanks, it will come through traditional values and similar soft power, which is very dangerous for the West, because many people can become consumers of these ideas.

"The Putin regime looks resilient, but I would say there are some signs of weakness, although I'm not sure how to define that, but I think ultimately, at least in the short term, Russia is quite resilient for a lot of prosaic reasons.

The difference compared to recent years is that Putin militarized the country very quickly. However, I would note that Putin avoids general mobilization, this is the moment where partial fragility is revealed, he did not announce general mobilization, and the reason for this may be that the public reacted very badly, even when partial mobilization was announced. They started leaving the country and we even saw some protest. Also, I will say that Putin uses any excuse for pressure, the country is run by the armed forces, security services.

As for the political part, there are "elections" in Russia on March 15, 16, 17 of this year. It will last for three days, which will give them many opportunities to manipulate the votes, but we know who will win the election. Although Russia will use all its administrative resources, they still leave no theoretical chance for others - Navalny is dead, Kara-Murza is in prison, and many people who oppose the war are being prosecuted", said the expert.

As for the economic part, according to Jill Dougherty, it was ridiculous to assume that the oligarchs, disturbed by the sanctions, would go against Putin.

"Putin managed to make his country's economy work, they found ways to circumvent sanctions. I think it should be noted that the idea at the beginning of the sanctions was to create difficulties for the economic elites, for the so-called oligarchs and they would say it's too much and we should stop supporting Putin. I think that theory was pretty ridiculous, it didn't work and it definitely won't work now. The reason why they will not go against Putin is that he has subjugated them to some extent. Also, it is very important that Putin buys middle-class Russians, offers them social benefits, money, lowers mortgage rates, raises average wages and offers benefits to those fighting in Ukraine. This is the banality of evil. To summarize, I think the danger for the West is that Putin's greatest strength may be the West's weakness. Any idea that comes from Putin that can be exported to the West is very dangerous and I don't think it will come there with tanks, but it will come through traditional values, through the inaction of the authorities. All such soft power can be very effective," said Jill Dougherty.