Here’s a little dirty secret that people don’t want to talk about:
Most countries can lose literally millions of men (as in biological male) and be completely fine later. The Soviet Union lost 26 million people during World War 2 and it still became a superpower for quite a few years later.
A more extreme example was Paraguay in the 19th century War of the Triple Alliance. It faced Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay with predictable result: Something like more than half of the male population was wiped out, including the president. Last I checked, Paraguay is still a country.
Why is this the case? In reproduction, the men are only needed for a second or so (biologically speaking) while women have to carry for 9 months. So long as enough women live, the country will repopulate. And even “better”, there would be fewer people to support in the welfare system.
Russia can probably take 10 million casualties or more and still exist as a country.
Will Putin’s government survive that? Don’t know. Just as importantly, what will replace it? Unfortunately, real-life doesn’t work like movies where the bad guys get replaced by the good guys.
EDIT: A lot of commenters are talking about the Russian population decline. There’s a reason why I don’t bother with it.
Nature has a way of correcting itself. For one, fewer men means more job openings and opportunities. The government can also import immigrants to make up the numbers. Populations tend to plateau out at the “carrying capacity”, so in the long run it will probably bounce back up there.
And secondly, there’s also automation and AI. Fewer workers will be needed in the future, so it doesn’t necessarily mean gloom and doom for the economy—but whether the Russian government is competent enough to manage that is an open question.
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