Swedish intelligence warns of continued Russian threat to neighboring countries even after Putin’s change: Bloomberg
The head of the Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Service, Thomas Nilsson, said that the Russian regime is likely to remain a threat to neighboring states long after Vladimir Putin’s rule ends. This is reported by Bloomberg.
According to Nilsson, Sweden assumes that the current crisis in relations with Russia is not short-term, but has a deep and long-term nature.
“We do not consider this crisis to be temporary; Russia has chosen its path, and there is no turning back. We are in a state of deep, structural and long-term strategic confrontation – we cannot simply wish it away,” Nilsson emphasized.
He also noted that the Russian economy continues to face difficulties, and officials, he said, are manipulating statistics to hide the effects of a full-scale war on economic growth and inflation. At the same time, Nilsson sees no signs that in the near future the stability of Putin’s regime is threatened.
“The political opposition has been effectively eliminated – through exile, imprisonment or, in the worst cases, murder. There is no one who can channel public discontent into a political alternative,” the head of Sweden’s Military Intelligence and Security Service noted.
According to him, polls also indicate that there is real support among a part of the Russian population, not necessarily for the war itself, but for Russia’s ambitions as a great power.
“We do not expect any radical changes,” Nilsson added.
Against the backdrop of such assessments, European countries are increasing their attention to security risks. The Dutch Ministry of Defense, in terms of modernizing the army and defense sector, called Russia the main threat to Europe, and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Radosław Sikorski, previously warned of the possibility of an operation under a foreign flag to justify an attack on a NATO country.
