Putin’s ‘meat grinder’ invasion of Ukraine will only end if close aides stage a palace coup with Russian society now ‘totally inert’, experts warn

• The war in Ukraine will only end if Putin is removed in a coup, an expert says
• He believes a coup will arise once the Russian elite realise the war is a ‘dead end’
• A coup to remove Putin will involve his closest aids and guards, he says

Vladimir Putin will only be removed from power in a palace coup, says a prominent political scientist.

This is the only prospect for an end to the ‘meat grinder’ war in Ukraine, according to Vladislav Inozemtsev, director of the Russian Centre for Post-Industrial Society Research.

This comes as another Putin expert says the warmonger has no remaining viable options of fleeing into exile despite rumours that his henchmen have started so-called Operation Noah’s Ark to find him and his closest cronies a safe haven.

‘I believe the only chance to alter the situation is some kind of a palace coup – once the elite truly understands that Putin is leading them into a dead end,’ said Inozemtsev.

The only prospect for an end to the ‘meat grinder’ war in Ukraine is a coup against Putin, according to an expert on the Kremlin. Putin is pictured at the Kremlin, Moscow, December 20

The war in Ukraine will only end if Putin is removed from power in a palace coup, Vladislav Inozemtsev (pictured), an expert on Russian political science said

‘But whether it will happen or not, or when…. is impossible to forecast.’

Such a coup would involve Putin’s closest aides or guards.

Hopes of a mass uprising to topple Putin were forlorn, he said.

Russian society ‘is totally inert – and the Kremlin should not be expecting any problems’.

There were no major protests – ‘so far I don’t see any desire to stop the war,’ he said.

Inozemtsev, now Washington-based, claims that – contrary to some Western forecasts – Putin can raid the Russian economy to keep the war going for at least two more years, and that he could mobilise a total of one million men.

‘Putin has great potential to finance the war,’ he told Zerkalo website.

‘Reserves and the possibilities of borrowing in the Russian domestic market give him an infinite amount of money, and he will not have problems with the budget either this coming year, or in 2024.’

The war ‘will certainly last at least until [next] summer, depending on what successes or failures will be at the front in early spring.

‘As for the Ukrainian army, I am certain it is determined to repel Russian attacks.

‘Ukraine is constantly re-arming itself with Western weapons and ammunition, and this process is developing quite steadily.

‘So I think this is the meat grinder situation which will go on for quite a long time.

‘Indeed Russia will suffer big losses, but as Ukrainian officials rightly say Moscow has a capacity to mobilise up to a million men. This is correct.’

The experts warn that such a coup against Putin (pictured in the Kremlin, December 20) would involve his closest aides or guards. But any hopes of a mass uprising to topple Putin were forlorn

Putin’s former speech writer Abbas Gallyamov – now a critic – said Putin is now hyperactive compared with his reclusive style during the Covid pandemic.

Even though Russia is swept by Covid again – and flu – he is now active because ‘he has other things to be afraid of…

‘There are much scarier enemies now [like] the Ukrainian Armed Forces, first of all, and the collective West, NATO.

‘He is forced to become more active. The situation is clearly now developing not in his desired way.’

He said: ‘This is the last chance for Putin, and he’s trying to max it out.’

But Gallyamov told interviewer Yevgenia Albats that a ‘vacuum of power is forming’ and that his circle has sought a ‘rainy day’ plan for him and his closest people to flee Russia if needed.

They had sought havens in China, Venezuela and Argentina, he said.

The war will last at least until next summer, experts said. Putin is pictured in Minsk, Belarus, December 19

Kremlin expert Valery Solovey (pictured) said he does not see a viable exit route for Putin for exile in another country

But another Putin expert Valery Solovey – a former professor at Moscow’s prestigious Institute of International Relations [MGIMO], a training school for spies and diplomats – said these plans and another envisioned bolthole in Israel, the Central African Republic and one unnamed European country, were now hopeless for the Kremlin leader.

‘Israel was acceptable before February 24 [when the war started],’ he said.

‘Now they have no destination country.

‘There is no place they can hide, it simply does not exist on the planet, because February 24 changed the situation.

‘And this is why the political establishment is highly nervous, particularly those who are responsible for the military and political part of the operation.

‘They would have been ready to accept a deal — there were rumours,’ he said.

But now there was no foreign exit route for Putin and his team.

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