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Russia’s political system can appear formidable from the outside even when it may be unexpectedly weak within, according to the head of Estonia’s foreign intelligence service, who says battlefield losses, economic pressure and growing dissatisfaction among powerful Russians are narrowing President Vladimir V. Putin’s options.
“If something changes in Russia, then it will happen in a very rapid manner and we will all be surprised,” Kaupo Rosin, the director general of the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service, told The Telegraph in an interview published Saturday. “It will be an overnight thing, if it ever happens.”
Mr. Rosin is not predicting a revolution. He said he did not currently see a street uprising developing in Russia, described no organized effort to remove Mr. Putin and acknowledged that he could not determine whether growing dissatisfaction would ultimately alter the Russian president’s decisions.
Instead, Mr. Rosin described a widening gap between the confidence Mr. Putin projects publicly and the doubts that he says are becoming more evident among some people around him.
Mr. Putin continues to convey confidence that Russia will eventually prevail, Mr. Rosin said. But he questioned whether everyone around the Russian president remains equally convinced. Some voices continue to favor pressing ahead with the war, he said, while those urging Mr. Putin to reconsider the situation are becoming “stronger and stronger.”
Russia, Mr. Rosin said, is “in a very bad place.”
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