Vladimir Putin is a "walking disaster" who repeatedly responds to his own failures by creating even more problems, a defence expert has warned. Professor Michael Clarke, former director of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and a defence analyst, said the Russian president was effectively trapped by his own decisions as the war in Ukraine continues.
He warned that Putin was unwilling to retreat or compromise about the war and would instead continue escalating it, attempting to frighten European countries into staying out. The comment comes as tensions between Russia and the West continue to rise, with Moscow repeatedly attacking countries supporting Ukraine through verbal threats and hybrid warfare.
Dictators and blunders
Professor Clarke told the Express that for Putin, despite bold claims coming from Russia's elites, attacking a NATO country would be a "disaster", followed by "more blunders". He explained the wider historical pattern in which dictators respond to mistakes by making further blunders.
He said: "The man is a walking disaster, and he's walked Russia into complete disaster, and he follows one disaster with another."
"There's a pattern in history that when dictators make blunders, they cover it up by making another blunder somewhere else. He [Putin] can't go back. He's not willing to compromise [on Ukraine], so his only direction is to go forward, and that means more war in Ukraine, more threats to Europe."
Putin's calculations on the US
Mr Clarke thinks that Putin may believe he has an opportunity to push ahead with the war while avoiding direct intervention from the United States, as long as Donald Trump remains the president.
"He calculates that Donald Trump will not stop him. He calculates that Trump is too frightened of him to actually intervene."
The expert added that the war in Ukraine could become significantly more dangerous for Europe over the coming weeks, as Putin appears interested in trying to settle the conflict "once and for all" in the next six months, potentially at a huge cost to Russia.
Threats to Europe
He said: "Part of that strategy will be to frighten Europe and bully Europe to stand aside while he suppresses Ukraine with another three or 400,000 troops, who'll just be flooded into the territory to die in large numbers, but to take ground.
"I'm not predicting that's gonna happen, but you can see the way things are beginning to fall into place to give him that option of trying to settle this war."
Despite the threats, the professor doesn't believe the situation was necessarily heading towards a new world war. Instead, he thinks the world is "facing a series of militarised crises when NATO's resolve will be tested."
