Russians are waking up to the costs of Putin’s invasion, says British spy chief – newsdubai

Ordinary Russians are increasingly counting the cost of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and can increasingly see “how badly Putin has misjudged the situation”, according to a senior British spy chief.

Sir Jeremy Fleming, head of Britain’s cyber intelligence agency GCHQ, called Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine a “high-stakes strategy” where “the cost to Russia – in people and equipment is staggering” and “the Russian people have begun to understand that ”.

“We know – and Russian commanders on the ground know – that their supplies and ammunition are running low. Russia’s forces are exhausted. The use of prisoners to reinforce, and now the mobilization of tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts, speaks of a desperate situation,” said Fleming.

The Russian population, meanwhile, is “fleeing the draft and realizing that they can no longer travel. They know that their access to modern technologies and external influences will be drastically limited. And they feel the magnitude of his terrible human cost [Putin’s] election war,” Fleming added.

According to an independent survey by the Russian polling organization Levada Center, almost half of Russians surveyed are concerned about mobilization, although support for Russia’s military actions remains high. The poll was published on 1 September.

Fleming’s remarks come after Russia launched a series of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, which Putin said were in retaliation for the explosion over the weekend that collapsed part of the Kerch bridge linking Russia and the occupied Crimean peninsula

His comments are part of a longer speech he will give on Tuesday to the think tank Royal United Services Institute, where the spy chief will also explain the technological threat posed by China.

Fleming, who has described the security threat from Russia as influencing the weather as China influences the climate, said Beijing’s increasing technological prowess meant Western nations faced what he called a “sliding-door moment in history” that “will define our future”.

The two countries have described their relationship as being “without borders”, and Fleming said that among the lessons Beijing is learning from the war in Ukraine is that a centralized digital currency could “enable China to partially evade the kind of international sanctions currently applied to Putin’s regime in Russia”.

The Chinese Communist Party, he said, sought to use key technologies such as digital currencies and satellite systems to tighten its grip on power at home and spread influence abroad by shaping the global technology ecosystem.

Central bank digital currencies could allow the government to monitor its users’ transactions, both abroad and at home, Fleming said.

China can also use its Beidou satellite navigation system, which Beijing has developed as an alternative platform to Europe’s Galileo and the US’s GPS satellite systems and has forced “Chinese citizens and companies to adopt”, can also be used to deny other nations access to space in case of a conflict.

China is seeking to create “client economies and governments” by exporting its technology around the world, Fleming said, and countries that accept Beijing’s offers, which are often wrapped in broader commercial deals and aid packages, risk “mortgaging the future”.