VLADIMIR Putin's war in Ukraine has exposed Russia as a creaking and crumbling mafia state in worse shape than its darkest days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to security experts.
It has been claimed Russia will be cast into international oblivion for decades to come following its shambolic invasion of Ukraine.
Professor David Gioe, from King College London's, and former MoD official Dr William Styles argued the case in their new study "Vladimir Putin's Russian World Turned Upside Down".
The paper argued Putin's ill-conceived war was " a strategic blunder of such magnitude" it's placed Russia in the worst position it's been in for a generation.
Vlad's country is now than it was the after the break up of the Soviet Union and before Putin's rise to power 22 years ago.
"Relative territorial gains and losses in the Donbas – measured mostly in a see-saw of single digit kilometres – are of almost no consequence; at the strategic and grand-strategic levels, Russia has irredeemably failed," read the new study released to The Sun Online.
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Putin's blundering campaign in Ukraine has been more than 65,000 casualties and and hundred of helicopters and thousands of tanks destroyed or captured and repurposed by the Ukrainians.
The study describes Putin's soldiers as marching into a "buzzsaw".
And it paints Vlad's war as the biggest miscalculation since Hitler's disastrous invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 – a move that some say ultimately led to the tyrant's defeat in World War 2.
Adding to Moscow's pain are Western sanctions, which have crippled the the country's economy and blocked it from sourcing vital components to build more weapons.
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"Put simply, there is no military, economic, intelligence, diplomatic dimension, and no aspect of Russian civil society, that will not be negatively impacted, if only indirectly, by Putin’s misjudgment in Ukraine," the report read.
Russia has already lost vital military assets like its flagship Moskva and seen attacks on prized infrastructure like the Crimean bridge.
Regardless, there seems to end in sight to Putin's depraved plans as he orders hundreds of thousands or drunken, bumbling conscripts to the frontline to face the "buzzsaw of evermore lethal Ukrainian resistance".
"Russia has suffered staggering casualties, and there are rampant accounts of dreadful troop morale," the report reads.
"Even if the Russian military is able to secure a short-term operational victory through grinding attritional warfare, the sheer quantity of personnel required to maintain an effective counter-insurgency presence will be essentially impossible to generate."
Even Putin's sacred secret police have been side-lined following the debacle of the initial phase of the invasion.
"Typically Putin’s favourite tool on the international stage, internal squabbling and blame shifting has severely damaged Russian intelligence capabilities.
"It has also faced considerable crises in the way of cyberattacks exposing vast swathes of data on the Kremlin’s security apparatus.
"Ukrainian executions of suspected Russian agents severely
undermining Russian operations, alongside the expulsions of over 400 Russian officials from posts around the globe.
"This will impede Putin’s ability for years to come to conduct global intelligence operations, given the probable reluctance of Western countries to accept more Russian ‘diplomats’."
These disastrous moves have turned the clock back on Russian for decades.
"Putin cannot stitch together enough tactical victories in Ukraine to translate his war into a strategic success given Russia’s faltering economy, crumbling military, chastened intelligence services, toxic international brand, dwindling demographics, and terrorised
civil society," said Professor Gioe.
"[Putin's] blunder has caused catastrophic harm to Russia across every facet of statecraft in the short term, and, moreover, has imperilled Russian development and prosperity for the future."
"The ever-larger accounting of crimes and atrocities has further damaged the legitimacy of Russia as a state in the international system, cementing its pariah status."
According to the academics, the invasion is "potentially, the greatest geopolitical blunder since Adolf Hitler invading Russia in 1941" which led to the downfall of Nazi Germany four years later.
"Putin’s miscalculation in Ukraine has weakened Russia at an elemental level, setting it back decades across all measurable and intangible axes of political, military, and economic power, hobbling Russian statecraft and strategic action for decades," they said.
"The rump of a once-powerful empire is now subjected to perpetual decline, so long as Putin helms the ship of state."
It comes as ex-NATO chief Sir Richard Shirreff urged the West to keep up the pressure on the tyrant as his invasion of Ukraine loses momentum.
Sir Richard compared the rout to the total collapse of the Russian tsar's military in 1917.
The revolution saw soldiers mutiny and refuse to follow orders, ending Russia's involvement in World War 1 and led to the Russian revolution.
Territorial gains and losses in the Donbas… are of almost no consequence; at the strategic and grand-strategic levels, Russia has irredeemably failed
Ukrainian successes have been compounded by Russian failures – with Putin's "fundamentally kleptocratic and corrupt" military leaving his men hopelessly underequipped.
And now there has been a "totally chaotic" mobilisation of the conscripts, with reports men are being left without food or other basic resources.
Putin is also making uninformed decisions at the top the Kremlin about the war – with Vlad reportedly being increasingly isolated, disconnected from reality and surrounded by his cronies.
“The [Russian] morale has gone," explained Sir Richard.
"You’ve got soldiers who simply don’t want to fight – these guys were told they would be welcomed with open arms by cheering crowds and the so-called ‘Ukrainian Nazis’ would collapse.
“But they were met by a ferocious resistance, they are in a country that doesn’t want them there. Why should they die for Putin’s adventure?
“Conceptually the Russians do not understand combined arms warfare, they haven’t trained properly, physically they haven’t got the right kit and what they do have is rubbish, and morally they are completely bankrupt.”
And even with winter and the "rasputitsa" rains rolling in to churn up the thick mud, this might not slow down Ukraine.
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"If the winter is cold enough for the ground to freeze, then the Ukrainians will keep motoring," Sir Richard told The Sun Online.
"The Ukrainians are well prepared, they’ve got the clothing, they’ve got the kit, and they’ve got the morale and the motivation – they are not going to stop."
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