The constitution is being tampered with to enable President Vladimir Putin to remain in control indefinitely. Yet an experienced Kremlin-watcher argues that Putin’s grip on power is looser than ever before – because of the looming threat to the country posed by Covid-19

From China, where the pandemic began, to the United States, where the disease has cut a swathe through New York and other major cities, via Europe and the United Kingdom, where the prime minister, senior advisers and members of the Cabinet have fallen ill, the debilitating effects of the coronavirus have everywhere spilled over into the political domain. The fallout could even sway the result of the US presidential election.

There is one country, though, where the political ravages of the virus are potentially more destabilising than almost anywhere else, and that is Russia. The disease could pose a bigger threat to order in the Russian state, and to its president personally, than any crisis Vladimir Putin (pictured) has faced over his 20 years in power.

There have been times in the past when Putin’s grip on power seemed to falter – but not many. There was his ill-judged response to the Kursk submarine disaster just months after he first took office; the pensioner protests in the winter of 2005; and the fear that young Russians might try to emulate Ukraine’s Orange Revolution or the Arab Spring.