The Economist gives oligarch Melnichenko the floor

In a Facebook post, political scientist Abbas Gallyamov sees the article and interview as an appeal to Russians to save their country:

“Exactly one day before the article was published, Foreign Minister Lavrov reiterated that all the objectives of the ‘special operation’ would be achieved. What Melnichenko writes casts doubt on Lavrov’s statements: what ‘tasks of the special operations’ remain when the agenda includes the question of Russia’s disintegration or its vassal-like dependence on China? According to Melnichenko’s account, the country faces DEFENSIVE tasks: the preservation of its sovereignty. It follows that anything that contributes to the preservation of sovereignty is good, and anything that stands in the way of it is bad. … The merit of the article lies in the fact that it debunks the emotional rhetoric on which the entire ‘patriotic’ discourse is based.”