According to the Lithuanian secret service, Russia is becoming “increasingly totalitarian” under President Vladimir Putin. The threat is not over, even if Putin’s regime collapses.
According to the Lithuanian secret services, Russia is able to continue the war in Ukraine for another two years. “We estimate that the resources available to Russia today would be sufficient to fight a war with the same intensity as today for two more years,” said Colonel Elegijus Paulavicius of the Baltic EU-NATO country’s military intelligence service Thursday at the presentation of his authority’s annual report.
Russia is becoming “increasingly totalitarian” under President Vladimir Putin, the report said. However, the war in Ukraine is undermining “the political and economic foundations of the regime”. The failures on the battlefield, further mobilizations and a deterioration in the economic situation could have negative consequences for its stability.
Should Putin go, “another authoritarian regime” could follow
“In the current social and political environment, the most likely alternative to Putin’s regime is another authoritarian regime,” wrote the Lithuanian intelligence services. Russia remains “probably a threat and source of instability in the region, at least in the medium term.”
Lithuania borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Russia’s ally Belarus. According to the intelligence services, the war only limits Russia’s military capabilities in the area around the former Koenigsberg and in western Russia to a certain extent and temporarily. Negative on security of Lithuania and other NATO countries in the region, Russia’s “unrestricted ability” to send its troops to Belarus is also having an impact. This shortens the warning time, Paulavicius said, according to the BNS agency.
(APA/dpa)