Masha Gessen, a Russian-American journalist and author of 'Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin', says the Russian President's grip on power is short-lived as the majority of people do not support him.
"There's a huge and growing protest movement and that means that Putin's legitimacy is completely shunned, and you can see that, and you can also see how afraid he has become of his own people".
"When was sworn in as president he drove through deserted streets in Moscow", Ms Gessen added.
She says Mr Putin knows he has lost the support of the majority, and how long he can now last in power depends on a number of factors.
"It depends on the price of oil, because the moment it falls and the people feel the financial hardship in addition to everything else, the protest movement will get even larger, and police loyalty will become even more fragile".
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Ms Gessen is confident the police will turn against Putin at some stage, to the point he will have to negotiate for unity and his own exit.
"There's also the question of how far police want to go. They have already spontaneously, during the presidential inauguration, refused to detain peaceful protesters -- most of them did, but some didn't, and they are now jailed -- and that will become a mass phenomenon.
Ms Gessen, who now lives in Moscow, says she has been attacked and threatened many times.
"If you are against the regime, then you are outside the protection of the law, and it's only a matter of time before you are attacked".
She says several of her colleagues were beaten.
"A friend if mine was coming home at around 11pm and he was beaten in front of security cameras in his building in the centre of Moscow," she said.
"He was beaten by two people quite professionally. He was left to die, basically.
"The bones in his body were not just broken, they were crushed. His fingers were crushed; his knee-caps were crushed; he had several skull fractures. It's amazing that he survived".
Other colleagues have been killed, Ms Gessen said, but her advice for journalists working in Russia now is to stay visible.
"The only thing that protects me now is that there would be a widespread international action to an attack," she said.
Ms Gessen also believes Mr Putin's bare-chested 'action man' image has lost its electoral appeal.
"In the March presidential election, he got about 50 per cent of the vote," she said.
"If you consider the fact that he has a monopoly on the media and a monopoly of the ballot, that nobody got a ballot without his approval, and no one can campaign against him -- and still, he got 50 per cent of the vote -- we can only conclude that if people were actually allowed to campaign, and if the opposition had access to the media, he would get a small minority".
Masha Gessen appeared at Sydney's Writers' Festival at the weekend.
