A former top US military chief today demanded a “reckoning” for Russia over its war with Ukraine.
Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, a retired Commanding General of US Army Europe, believed another Kremlin tyrant would take Vladimir Putin’s place unless Moscow faces the reality of 21st Century politics.
He told the Tory-linked Policy Exchange think tank: “Russia has been an empire for about five centuries; it's never been a state.
“They have never had a reckoning with who they are and, I think, until they are defeated - I mean crushed, the old fashioned way - there will be another Putin after this one, there’s never going to be somebody that is able to grip the reins there and actually change how Russia is.
“For all of us, long term there needs to be a sort of reckoning - war crimes, all of that.”
Lt Gen Hodges believed a third of Russia’s oblasts - districts - “have long been waiting for a chance to breakaway if they could be survivable somehow on their own”.
He said that whoever becomes president after Putin, 70, would be weaker than the current leader.
“There’s no way whoever comes after him can be any worse - and whoever does come after him will also be weaker because he or she will inherit a military that is in tatters, a defence industry that has been shattered, their ability to influence the world with energy is gone,” he told defence experts.
“The next person will have a weaker hand and priority one for that person will probably be to consolidate their power, not continue attacks against Ukraine.”
Speaking 15 months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Lt Gen Hodges hoped Putin’s successor would “fall in love with their own borders rather than everybody else’s”.
Former NATO Secretary-General Lord George Robertson, an ex-Labour Defence Secretary, called on the West to win over ordinary, younger Russians.
He said leaders “needed to offer a prospect for post-Putin Russians - the younger generation have got to know that he’s the pariah not the state, not the people themselves”.
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