The war in Ukraine is now in its ninth month, and setbacks on the battlefield, along with tougher sanctions and an unwelcome mass mobilization, have raised questions about Putin's, and Russia's, future.

The political analyst and strategist Michail Sjejteljman is one of those who wrote about the criticism leveled at Putin from his own ranks.

Sjejteljman tells the Foreign Office that, according to his calculations, Putin has lost a majority of the power and authority he had at the beginning of the war.

- At the beginning of the war, 90 percent of all decisions were made by Putin or with Putin's approval and 90 percent of the demands that came from Putin were fulfilled.

Today, I believe that Putin has about 30 percent of the power in Russia and about 30 percent of his demands are met, says Sjejteljman.

Former doldis are publicly visible

One of the signs of the Russian president's shrinking power is that his men who previously operated in secret have taken a step forward - and gone against the official line.

- At the beginning of September, the leader of the Wagner group Prigoshin suddenly became a public figure after the cities of Severodonetsk and Lisychansk were captured by the Wagner group and not by the Russian army.

Suddenly a video appears in which Prigoshin himself stands in front of prisoners.

He decided to become a public figure.

Sjejteljman sees it as a sign that it has become easier to criticize Putin.

He says that Prigoshin started giving interviews almost every week where he could go against the president.

"Ready to replace Putin's inner circle"

Another person close to Putin who acted as he pleased during the war is Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

- In September, parallel to Prigoshin's statements, Kadyrov began to make statements at the state level.

When Putin said that there will be no mobilization, Kadyrov said the same day that there will be a mobilization and each region must supply 1,000 soldiers.

- Kadyrov and Prigoshin are a completely new public force that is ready to replace the entire old elite.

For now, they want to keep Putin, but replace his entire closest circle.

Click on the clip to hear more from Michail Shejteljman and see more about what might happen in Russia when Putin one day leaves the post at the Foreign Office: After Putin.

At 10 pm in SVT2 or from 8 pm in SVT Play.