Putin's changing of some major roles around his war cabinet, especially appointing economist Andrei Belousov as Defence Minister and some relatives to high-ranking positions in his government, shows a paradigm shift. What does that mean for the war against the Ukraine and Russia's defense strategy?

We find ourselves at a tipping point in history, where the fear of escalation and the reluctance to provide full military support to democratic states under attack feed directly into the ambitions of autocratic systems.