Vladimir Putin is “terribly scared” as he celebrates the first anniversary of his invasion of Ukraine, says a former general in Russia’s secret services.
The Russian dictator badly misunderstood the West’s determination to confront him and failed to realize the incompetence of his army, according to the former head of the FSB’s Moscow division.
“Putin perfectly understands the state of mind of people who have lost everything through his fault,” retired General Yevgeny Savostyanov said. ‘He understands that this anger can find an outlet, so he keeps them away.
‘Putin is now terribly scared. He understands that he is in trouble,” he said.
Putin’s problems were self-inflicted by going to war, he added. ‘He lived happily [yet] with his own hands, he took and ruined everything. Amazing story.’ Now, she is “in such a psychological state that she clings to any chance of winning.”
Vladimir Putin (pictured Thursday) is “terribly scared” as he marks the first anniversary of his invasion of Ukraine, according to a Russian secret service general.
Yesterday, Leaked documents suggested FSB misled Putin about his chances of victory-telling the despot that his forces would take kyiv in just three days and that the Ukrainians would welcome the Russian soldiers with open arms.
However, today marks one year since Putin launched the invasion. Russian forces are pinned down in the east and Volodymyr Zelensky remains president.
And while Russia has so far managed to blunt the impact of Western sanctions, Savostyanov said that thanks to Putin and his invasion of Ukraine, the Russian people “will live very badly no matter what, it’s already inevitable.”
He predicts a move by Putin and his cronies to hand over the presidency to a less toxic ally in the West but a figure who will preserve Putin’s circle of 70 years, hoping to prevent any sort of internal revolution.
He suspects this figure will be agriculture minister Dmitry Patrushev, 45, the son of Putin’s hardline security adviser Nikolai Patrushev, 71, one of the architects of the disastrous war in Ukraine.
“Patrushev’s son is named as a possible successor,” said Savostyanov, 70, also a former deputy head of the Kremlin administration who had predicted Putin’s unexpected rise to power before 2000.
Dmitry Patrushev was seen as a “suitable figure” who “will receive strong support” to control Russia. And ‘in the eyes of the West, he is not too tainted’, since he did not play a significant role in the war. Significantly, Putin praised Dmitry Patrushev in his state of the nation address this week.
However, “there was no reason for optimism” because of the “absurdity” of the crisis Russia is facing, caused by Putin, Savostyanov told the Republic in a savage criticism of Putin.
“Russia is slipping into the role of the leader of the third world, where we are only needed as long as we can give money,” he said.
‘The time will come, and [in Russia] we will see empty shelves, shortage of goods, impoverishment of people and technological backwardness in all areas.
