In an interview given to a right wing Sanchez Effect, Russian politician and propagandist Vladimir Medinsky very correctly described the foundations of the system of governance created in Russia by Putin: "to stay in power forever, you need a constant enemy". He also honestly admitted that families of many in Russian elites keep their families and wealth in the West.

P.S. I suspect Medinsky intention was to describe Ukrainian elites, but in reality what he says 100% describes Russia. In Ukraine the enemy is very real, as it had actually invaded Ukraine, but in Russia the enemy was always imaginary - there were "liberals", "LGBT ideology", "fourth column", "fifth column", NATO, Ukraine, European Union etc, none of which ever threatened Russia. The sole purpose of hyping these enemies, both internal and external, was to justify internal repressions, censorship and ultimately invasion on Ukraine.