The war is beginning to dictate its own rules to Putin. The president and his inner circle are being forced to submit to the new wartime reality that they themselves created. By choosing war and allowing it to pervade everything else, Putin is becoming caught in a trap, turning into a function and instrument of that war. The upcoming elections are acting as a catalyst for all of those processes.

Predictable though it is, the election is also important because against its backdrop, various societal challenges will inevitably appear or worsen. Certainly, Russian society will remain under strict control, but Putin’s behavior ahead of the election reveals his efforts to avoid any kind of social frustration: almost as if he were running for reelection in a democratic country, and not in wartime Russia.

A striking example is the protests by the wives and mothers of those drafted into the army in Russia’s partial mobilization back in the fall of 2022, who would now like to see their husbands and sons come home and for someone else to take their turn at the front. The presidential administration has instructed the regions to appease the distraught relatives but without resorting to arrests, which would only cause further outrage.
https://carnegieendowment.org/politika/91383