{"id":1034167,"date":"2026-08-31T03:13:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T03:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1034167\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T03:13:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T03:13:37","slug":"putin-could-be-in-danger-of-losing-his-grip-on-russia-spymaster-says-as-moscow-tests-nato-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1034167\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin could be in danger of losing his grip on Russia, spymaster says \u2014 as Moscow tests NATO countries"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Strongman Vladimir Putin\u2019s grip on power<\/a> could be in danger, the spymaster of Estonia has claimed \u2014 as the Kremlin ramps up aggression against NATO countries.<\/p>\n

Kaupo Rosin, the Director General of the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service (EFIS), suggested that while a \u201cstreet revolu\u00adtion\u201d in Russia seems unlikely, the walls are closing in on Putin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are cer\u00adtainly voices which express that he should keep going, but I think the voices which, let\u2019s say, urge [him] to maybe recon\u00adsider the situ\u00adation are becom\u00ading stronger,\u201d Rosin told the Telegraph<\/a> while assessing the \u201cinternal tension\u201d Russia faces.<\/p>\n

Russia \u201cis in a very bad place\u201d under Vladimir Putin, Estonia\u2019s spy boss Kaupo Rosin assessed. ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he has, at this point, are only bad options.\u201d<\/p>\n

Estonia, a small Baltic nation on Russia\u2019s border that was once part of the Soviet Union but is now a NATO member, has long been a close Kremlin watcher.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, object\u00adively, Rus\u00adsia is in a very bad place at the moment, and many people under\u00adstand this in Russia,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Eventually, Putin\u2019s allies might decide that the nation is better without the former KGB strongman \u2014 who has ruled Russia since 2000.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, NATO countries surrounding Russia have faced an uptick in aggression from Moscow over recent months, including cyberattacks, drone intrusions, and more.<\/p>\n

Rosin warned that the dynamic inside Russia could change dramatically overnight. REUTERS<\/p>\n

One suspected Russian drone was shot down over Romania earlier this month, while German officials have identified at least three drones laced with explosives near an airport. <\/p>\n

These provocations have been described as \u201cgray-zone\u201d attacks and have been increasing in frequency since April, for the most part, according to the Wall Street Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a surprise sprint to Moscow<\/a> to confer with his counterparts for reasons that have been subject to conflicting reports.<\/p>\n

US intelligence believes that Russia could step up its incursions into NATO territories in the future as a test of the alliance\u2019s resolve, the Journal reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some have speculated that Ratcliffe met with his counterparts to warn Moscow against testing NATO\u2019s resolve.<\/p>\n

The uptick in Russia\u2019s \u201cgray-zone\u201d aggression comes amid its stalled advancement in the war in Ukraine, in which the Kremlin has barely made any gains and struggled against drone strikes on sensitive targets within its borders. <\/p>\n

Russia has faced drone attacks on its own soil from Ukraine, which has been fending off invaders since 2022. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say, if something changes in Rus\u00adsia, then it will hap\u00adpen in a very rapid man\u00adner and we will all be sur\u00adprised. It will be an overnight thing, if it ever hap\u00adpens,\u201d Rosin stressed. <\/p>\n

Early on in the war, Russia faced a revolt from the Wagner Group<\/a>, a team of mercenaries led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, also known as \u201cPutin\u2019s chef,\u201d who marched a convoy toward Moscow in a stunning internal threat to the Kremlin.<\/p>\n

Russia put down the rebellion, and Prigozhin later died mysteriously in a plane crash<\/a>. Putin was widely speculated to have had a hand in Prigozhin\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Putin has been grappling with elevated inflation and a sputtering economy as it deals with the fallout from crippling sanctions and attacks on its homeland from Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see that over\u00adall unhap\u00adpi\u00adness levels with this war are increas\u00ading in all ech\u00adel\u00adons of soci\u00adety, start\u00ading from nor\u00admal people and throughout, up to the olig\u00adarchs,\u201d Rosin told the outlet. <\/p>\n

\u201cMore and more people do not want this war. The ques\u00adtion is: what impact does this have on his [Putin\u2019s] decision-mak\u00ading?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Strongman Vladimir Putin\u2019s grip on power could be in danger, the spymaster of Estonia has claimed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1034168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[3350,8959,50,80,257,430,274,103,107],"class_list":["post-1034167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-foreign-policy","tag-nato","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-russia","tag-ukraine-war","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-world","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117187943590081737","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1034168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}