The Moscow regime will continue to pose a threat to its neighbors and to European security long after the potential departure of Vladimir Putin from the Kremlin’s leadership, warned the head of the Swedish Military Intelligence Service, Thomas Nilsson.
The statements suggest a pessimistic assessment of the future development of relations between Russia and the West, notes Bloomberg.
Thomas Nilsson stated that the current situation is not a temporary one, but reflects a profound and enduring strategic confrontation.
“We do not consider this crisis to be a temporary one; Russia has chosen its path and there is no turning back. We are in a deep, structural, and long-lasting strategic confrontation – we cannot pretend it does not exist,” Nilsson declared.
The Swedish official argued that Russia’s economy continues to face difficulties, while the authorities in Moscow are allegedly manipulating economic data to hide the impact of the war on economic growth and inflation, in the context of the conflict that has been ongoing since February 2022.
However, Nilsson emphasized that, in the short term, there are no indications of a threat to the stability of the regime led by Vladimir Putin.
“The political opposition has been effectively eliminated – through exile, imprisonment, or, in the most severe cases, assassination. There is no one capable of channeling public discontent towards a political alternative,” he pointed out.
The head of the Swedish military intelligence services has also shown that a part of the population in Russia continues to support the country’s geopolitical ambitions, even if not necessarily the military conflict itself.
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