'Desperate' Putin still a threat even if evil regime is at an end

VLADIMIR Putin’s call-up of 300,000 conscripts to war in Ukraine marks “the beginning of the end” of his regime, experts say.

- Marco Giannangeli

But the West must take his nuclear threats seriously because the “desperate” dictator is running out of options, it was warned.

The announcement of a “partial mobilisation” on Wednesday caused a mass exodus of eligible men, as border routes to Georgia and Finland became choked with traffic and one-way flights out of Moscow sold out. “Putin’s speech heralded the beginning of the collapse of the Putin regime,” said Keir Giles, of the Chatham House think tank.

“Russia is now displaying all the symptoms of the early stages of the kind of crisis that has brought Russian dictatorships crashing down in the past – pursuing unfeasible objectives in unwinnable wars and destroying the country, its economy and the lives of young men in the process.”