The Chief of Staff of the British Armed Forces, Admiral Tony Radakin, denied rumors that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s health had deteriorated or that he might be assassinated.
“I think some of the comments that [Putin] is not right or that surely someone is going to assassinate him or eliminate him, I think they are illusions,” Radakin said Friday during a BBC television interview broadcast on Sunday.
“As military professionals, we see a relatively stable regime in Russia. President Putin has been able to crush any opposition (…) and none of those at the top [del poder] he is in the mood to challenge President Putin,” Radakin added.
Rumors regarding the state of health of the Russian leader are very difficult to verify. According to Radakin, “the challenge posed by Russia will last” potentially “decades” and the prime minister who succeeds Boris Johnson must be aware that Russia represents “the biggest threat” to the UK.
Radakin told the BBC that the Ukrainian military was “absolutely” convinced that it was going to win the war triggered by the Russian invasion of the country on February 24.
According to the first calculations of the British army, Russia “lost more than 30% of its effectiveness in ground combat”.
“This means that 50,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in this conflict, that almost 1,700 Russian tanks have been destroyed, that almost 4,000 Russian-owned armored vehicles have been destroyed,” Radakin said.
The situation in Ukraine will focus the military reports of the future prime minister, who will replace Boris Johnson, who resigned at the beginning of July.
“And so we will have to remind the prime minister of the extraordinary responsibility he has to the UK as a nuclear power,” the British military chief said.
During the interview, Radakin was also asked regarding a BBC investigation which revealed this week that a British Special Air Service (SAS) commando unit had killed at least 54 people in suspicious circumstances in Afghanistan.
Radakin replied that the military police have already established that “this did not happen”, but that they will re-examine the matter if new concrete evidence emerges.