Putin Launches Desperate Power Grab as Humiliating Attacks Escalate

MIKHAIL METZEL / MIKHAIL METZEL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Russian President Vladimir Putin has executed a desperate power grab, granting the state sweeping authority to seize control of critically important infrastructure deemed poorly protected from Ukrainian drone attacks.

The presidential decree allows the state to take over temporary administration of physical and financial assets, as well as formal ownership rights, for fuel, energy, industrial, communications, transport, and logistics facilities if owners fail to protect or quickly repair them.

The mandate follows Putin’s order last week to rebuild commercial warehouses destroyed by Kyiv’s punishing air campaign, which has struck at least two dozen logistics hubs belonging to top retailer Wildberries since mid-July and targeted four southern hubs of second-largest retailer Ozon.

Russia, meanwhile, continues striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure ahead of winter, while Ukrainian urban areas face increasingly deadly attacks as Kyiv battles a severe shortage of air-defense interceptors.

The emergency decree comes as ordinary Russians panic over the deteriorating economy, pulling nearly $3.4 billion from their bank accounts in the first two weeks of August alone over fears Putin will seize their savings to fund the war.

Taras Skvortsov, a senior executive at Sberbank, warned capital flight could double the amount drained during the initial 2022 invasion, leaving banks facing severe liquidity shortages while forced to bankroll state-directed wartime lending.

“Drones are flying.

Things are burning down.

Nervousness is growing.

And people’s everyday wisdom may be kicking in that they need to have cash under their pillow,” a former Russian finance official told the Washington Post , noting citizens are withdrawing roughly half a trillion rubles ($5.9 billion) a month.

Central Bank data shows large Russian businesses transferred over $9.4 billion out of the country in Q2 of 2026, forcing the Finance Ministry to cancel planned state bond sales entirely.

Coupled with a worsening domestic fuel crisis from strikes on oil refineries, the mounting economic and military strain triggered Putin’s sharpest drop in approval ratings last month since launching the full-scale invasion.

Last week, Putin deployed Russia’s National Guard to gas stations as the country’s fuel crisis spiraled into street brawls and scenes of public outrage uncommon in Russia.

Last month, it was reported that the shortage had spread to at least 78 of Russia’s 83 regions, affecting some 50 million people.