Small steps, small steps.
This is an election year for Russia, and their election is in March/April, IIRC, so it's coming up fairly fast.
How Putin does in it, and how much the other 'controlled opposition' candidates get, will tell us a lot about how things are likely to go.
If the 'controlled opposition' get's too many votes, Putin will look weak internally, and that will make it easier for someone inside who is tired of the war to remove him.
Putin will not survive this war, the only question is if it's Ukraine or internal opposition who get him.