Bloomberg: Russian Elite Concerned That Putin Lost His Mind

The Estonian intelligence agency has published interesting data.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite failures in the first year of the invasion of Ukraine, has decided to stall, believing that the Ukrainian state and the West will "degrade sooner than Russia" and also expecting that he can "blow up" Ukraine at the negotiating table. For its part, the Russian elite is increasingly concerned that Putin has "lost his mind," Bloomberg writes, citing Estonian intelligence data.

At the same time, the article notes that there is no significant group of influence in a potential post-Putin Russia that would share democratic values. Instead, radical groups such as Wagner supervisor Evgeny Prigozhin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov are fighting for power in Russia.

Kaupo Rozin, director-general of the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service, is confident that Russia will not be able to break Ukraine. He admits that the Russians still have plenty of resources to continue the war, but at the same time the Russian economy continues to feel the blows.

In this regard, the Estonian intelligence chief attributes the key role to the decisiveness of the West. According to him, Ukraine is obliged to win this war, because if it is defeated, the price of the blow to European security will be much higher than the financial contribution that the allies are currently making.

Rozin also noted that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has increased the risk of military conflict in the Baltic region. Russia is likely to increase the activity of its Navy and Air Force in the Baltic Sea, the intelligence chief said.