Sick Putin loses his grip on every front

THE TSUNAMI of information flowing towards us about the Ukrainian situation is more than even our media can cope with. Most comes from Ukraine and is visible to all our reporters and cameramen out there. But what intrigues me is that the world of the tyrant Putin seems to be falling apart. This is intelligence and most of it comes from our Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ.

Based in a huge doughnut-shaped complex outside Cheltenham, GCHQ, among other things, is the great watcher and listener of our espionage array. High in Inner Space, out of reach of telescopes and missiles, cameras and recorders roll through the ether at exactly the same speed as earth, thus remaining stationary over any spot they are wanted. Gazing down, they record everything beneath them and it is beamed straight back to GCHQ. Thus we know what the Russian elite is doing and saying.And it is all getting very heartening.

It seems the citadel of supporters and sycophants inside which Vladimir Putin is accustomed to live may be crumbling. Enraged by the failures in Ukraine, his predictions of rapid conquest in ruins, the dictator is blaming everyone but himself. Two or three intelligence chiefs appear to be under house arrest; ditto one or two top generals. Privately, we hear them becoming more and more angry at the utter mess Putin has made of his campaign and the way he is now blaming them. Even lifelong sycophants turn eventually and seek to save themselves when the tyrant can no longer be rescued.

It looks as if this may be happening to Putin; sick and bloated, perhaps not wholly sane, he remains dangerous because in his dying desperation he could launch poison gas or even nuclear weapons. But will the generals and scientists who control these monsters obey him? I really suspect that we are quietly in touch with them already, preparing for the day when the arresting officers walk into the Kremlin.