On general Armageddon – Amy Knight in NYRB a couple of months ago:

‘Putin must have been aware that his generals had been siphoning off funds from the military budget for their own enrichment. Since his appointment as minister of defense in 2012, Sergei Shoigu has presided over a supposedly sweeping program of military modernization, costing the Kremlin billions of dollars, but—as shown by the Ukraine campaign—with unimpressive results. In the meantime, according to the investigative team of Alexei Navalny, Shoigu, who regularly accompanies Putin on Siberian fishing and hunting trips, acquired a lavish mansion outside Moscow, valued at $18 million, and once flew a group of generals to the Seychelles for a costly fishing vacation at Russian taxpayers’ expense. Navalny’s researchers also discovered that General Sergei Surovikin, recently demoted from his post as commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, was the beneficiary of lucrative financial deals involving the businessman Gennady Timchenko, a close friend of Putin’s. Timchenko’s company was mining phosphates in Syria when Surovikin was in charge of Russia’s brutal campaign there (for which he became known as “General Armageddon”).’

(…)

‘Putin did just that. Following a series of terrorist attacks in Russia in September 1999—which were falsely blamed on Chechens, although overwhelming evidence points to the FSB—Putin launched a brutal war in Chechnya that devastated the small Muslim republic, killing tens of thousands. By late November 1999 Putin’s popularity had soared, and his path to the presidency was assured.’

(…)

‘The Russian independent news website Meduza reported in late November on the results of an opinion poll commissioned for internal use by Russia’s Federal Guard Service showing that 55 percent of Russians favored negotiations with Ukraine, and only 25 percent supported a continuation of the war. Back in July the numbers were reversed: only 32 percent wanted negotiations, and 55 percent favored continuing hostilities.’

(…)

‘The crucial question is how long Putin can survive as the Kremlin’s leader without a victory.’

Read the article here.

Here you find a few of the many reasons why Putin and his allies had to kill Navalny.
And, according to his article, the whole Chechnya war was mainly meant to give Putin’s approval ratings a boost.

How long can Putin survive without a victory? Longer than many thought, long enough to continue the bloodshed.