Andrei Kanchelskis claims Scottish football is a mess and is convinced Russia will hand out a mauling to Scotland in next week's Euro showdown.
Steve Clarke's side fare up against it and travel to Moscow knowing their chances of reaching Euro 2020 rely solely on qualifying through the playoffs.
Kanchelskis won 59 caps for the Soviet Union, the CIS and Russia and was at Ibrox for four years and ended up winning six major trophies with Rangers.
Now in charge of Uzbekistan side Navbahor Namangan, the former Manchester United star believes Russia will unleash more misery on Clarke and his team.
And he reckons our game has been weakened by the dominance of Celtic because his old team Rangers have failed to mount any challenge to them recently.
He said: "I have no doubt Russia will win and that should be enough to take us to Euro 2020.
"Scotland are very weak. In fact, it's the weakest Scotland I can remember in my lifetime.
"They have some good individual players, but morale is low.
"The Scottish Premier League is a good indicator of the country. If the level of the league does not improve ... the national team won't improve.
"They used to have two good clubs - Rangers and Celtic - who were in the Champions League. Now they have none.
"Clubs can't afford the same level of player. During my time, we had players of the calibre of Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Fernando Ricksen, Frank de Boer, Ronald de Boer and Lorenzo Amoruso. Now there is no one like that.
"Celtic have no competitors. Previously, Rangers, Aberdeen and Hearts competed with them and it was at least interesting. Not any more. And that's had an impact on the national team.
"Russia has absolutely nothing to be afraid of against Scotland. The truth is Scotland should be very afraid of us.
"Because there is such a gap between the sides, perhaps we should use the game to look at a few youngsters too. It won't do them any harm.
"I expect Scotland to at least fight and battle because it's in their blood because I can't see it being any kind of competitive game."
