It's simply a matter of time before Vladimir Putin is gone with plans underway to send him to a sanatorium, a top former MI6 chief predicts.
The warmonger could be placed in an establishment for the medical treatment of people with chronic illness by next year, Sir Richard Dearlove claims.
There has been a string of claims about the health of the leader, with some reports suggesting he is suffering from cancer, undergoing chemotherapy and steroid treatment among other ailments.
Other reports claim Putin is suffering from Parkinson's or early-stage dementia.
Speaking on the One Decision podcast, Britain's Secret Intelligence Service's former boss says Putin would soon exit office to receive medical treatment.
"I think he'll be gone by 2023 - but probably into the sanatorium, from which he will not emerge as the leader of Russia," he said on the show.
"I'm not saying he won't emerge from the sanatorium, but he won't emerge as the leader of Russia any longer.
"That's a way to sort of move things on without a coup."
Mr Dearlove said that expert opinion may be beginning to shift in Russia which could indicate a change of thinking and attitude.
"I don't think public opinion is really shifting yet in Russia yet but I think expert opinion may be beginning to shift," he said.
The expert told how he was "rather struck" hearing Putin's latest reaction to Sweden and Finland's plans to join NATO and speculated that "somewhere in the machine there is a change of mood."
"Putin had said as long as NATO didn't open military bases in Sweden and Finland, them joining NATO was not going to be a problem for Russia.... I think that there might be the signs of a shift," he continued.
Mr Dearlove said there are "some very strange shots of Putin" and referred to his leg tapping during a recent meeting as "pretty odd."
He speculated that we are reaching "the end of this regime in Russia" but "that doesn't mean it is going to disappear."
"What I'm saying over the next year, 18 months maybe something, it is going to break apart.
"There is no question that this Ukrainian venture is a catastrophe," he added.
"The economy is in a mess, the sanctions are really going to start biting over the next three to six months, there will be very high inflation and over and above that, militarily it is a complete fiasco."
Putin's health has been failing for more than five years, a new investigation into the deteriorating dictator's condition has claimed.
The Russian president has vanished from public eye for weeks on end since 2017, it has been suggested.
Independent Russian media outlet Proekt carried out the study and scrutinised his absences as well as visits by specialist medics.
Hush-hush doctor visits in the past five years prove his health has been getting worse for some time, Express.co.uk reports.
It comes as former spy Christopher Steele, who ran the Russia desk at MI6 in London, says Putin is seriously ill and is now in need of around-the-clock medical care.
He believes the mysterious illness that has plagued the president, 69, has left the Kremlin reeling as they balance dealing with Putin's health and the war in Ukraine.
"He's constantly accompanied around the place by a team of doctors," he told LBC's Eddie Mair last week.
"Meetings of the security council that are shown to supposedly last for a whole hour are actually broken up into several sections, he goes out and receives some kind of medical treatment between those sections.
"So, clearly, he is seriously ill - how terminal or incurable it is is not clear, we can't be entirely sure.
"But it's certainly having a very serious impact on the governance of Russia at the moment."
