Leaders whose foreign-policy adventures end in defeat do not usually survive long in office. Either formal mechanisms are used to dethrone them – as occurred, for example, in the Soviet Union, when the Central Committee forced Nikita Khrushchev out of power in 1964 – or informal mechanisms come into play.
外交政策以失败告终的领导人此后通常都无法在位很久。要么通过正式制度将他们赶下台——如1964年苏共中央委员会迫使赫鲁晓夫交出权力——要么通过非正式机制。普京的权力精英集团将开始出现裂缝——事实上，这一过程已经开始了。他将承受日益增加的下台压力。人们会认为，不可能让国家和他一起失败。