Vladimir Putin’s downfall is wishful thinking, says defence chief

The head of Britain’s armed forces has said that speculation President Putin is gravely ill or could be assassinated is “wishful thinking”.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, chief of the defence staff, was asked if the Russian leader could be toppled or face regime change. He told Sophie Raworth on BBC1’s Sunday Morning: “I think some of the comments that he’s not well or that actually surely somebody’s going to assassinate him or take him out, I think they’re wishful thinking.

“As military professionals we see a relatively stable regime in Russia. Putin has been able to quash any opposition, we see a hierarchy that is invested in President Putin and so nobody at the top has got the motivation to challenge President Putin, and that is bleak.”

Radakin said the “challenge of Russia is going to endure”, potentially for decades, and the next prime minister should know that the country was “the biggest threat” to the UK.

“Russia continues to be a nuclear power, it’s got cyber-capabilities, it’s got space capabilities, and it’s got particular programmes under water so it can threaten the underwater cables that allow the world’s information to transit around the whole globe,” he added.

Radakin said Britain’s armed forces would “have even more punch and impact around the world” if defence spending rose to 3 per cent of GDP.

Following a recent visit to Kyiv, he said that Ukraine’s army “absolutely” believed it will win the war: “They plan to restore the whole of their territory in terms of Ukraine, and they see a Russia that is struggling, a Russia that we assess has lost more than 30 per cent of its land combat effectiveness.”