Channel One’s talk show “The Great Game. Part Three” is an unusual creature in Russia’s political snake pit. Its host, Dmitry Konstantinovich Simes, is a legendary Soviet intelligence asset who spent roughly half a century in the United States under cover as an independent American political scientist of the conservative‑realist school. Regular guests include Dmitry Trenin, Karen Shakhnazarov, Mikhail Khodarenok, and Yevgeny Buzhinsky. They are all convinced imperialists, absolutely loyal to the current regime, who see themselves as part of it and never miss a chance to underline their devotion to the man at the top.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. But as not stupid and highly ambitious people, they cannot remain blind and personally untouched by the nationwide wave we called in our previous column the “Vysotsky syndrome”: “No, guys, everything is wrong, everything is wrong, guys…” They are clearly trying to use this studio to suggest (as respectfully and cautiously as possible) steps the supreme leader might take to resist the rising wave that now threatens not only his personal power but also the imperial idea they all cherish. In this new situation, the show becomes a priceless source of information about the moods and hesitations at the very top of Russian power, where something serious seems to have happened between April 19 and April 22. By April 23, a fairly wide circle of observers could already see the consequences in the plainly abnormal behavior of that very “top.”