A group of men sit in a Kamaz truck – one of those big Russian 4x4s that regularly wins the Dakar rally – speeding down a highway. Some of them sense that they are going the wrong way fast but nobody dares do anything.

This graphic scenario is how the head of an oligarch-backed investment group close to the Kremlin describes the predicament in which Russia’s political and economic leadership finds itself.

Since a Malaysia Airlines flight was downed in eastern Ukraine on July 17, killing all 298 people on board, things have gone very wrong, very fast for President Vladimir Putin of Russia. The belief in most western countries that a band of pro-Russian rebels shot the Boeing 777 down with a missile provided by Russia has transformed frustration at Moscow’s support for the insurgents into fury. Western media headlines are labelling the Russian leader a murderer and a pariah, and European governments are discussing new sanctions which, if implemented, could wreck the country’s economy.