Political analyst names two factors, indicating that Russia lost war

He shared his opinion on the Espreso TV channel

"My conclusions are based on the idea that I have expressed many times before: the most dangerous thing for Putin is that significant players, many security agencies, for example, understand that the war is lost. China's withdrawal is a very important factor. And then there is the situation in the Middle East. It seems to me that Israel and the United States are preparing for a joint attack on Hezbollah and Iran, which is why two US aircraft carrier groups are roaming around there. And so, if another Putin ally, Iran, is knocked out, it will collapse Putin's positions inside," Piontkovsky explained.

The political analyst believes that dissatisfaction with the military aggression against Ukraine is brewing in the Russian security forces.

"I want to emphasize once again that we have underestimated the meaning of Prigozhin's rebellion. Prigozhin was not speaking out against Shoigu and Gerasimov. Prigozhin's last speeches were absolutely anti-war: "We did not invent this stupid war." And on the last day, he even said that on February 24, there was no threat to Donbas from NATO. However, it's not about Prigozhin. We can see that Prigozhin was supported by very reputable military officers. None of them - neither the FSB counterintelligence nor the Defense Ministry's intelligence service - carried out Putin's order to kill Prigozhin on the morning of the 26th of June. This means that among many security officials, the understanding of the futility of this war is long overdue. And these people, it's not that they are against the war, against killing, they are thinking about more serious things. In particular, how to retain power," he said.

• On December 1, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin signed a decree that provides for an increase in the Russian army by 170,000 people
• On December 2, the UK Ministry of Defense reported that the Russian authorities are likely to be particularly sensitive to any protests related to the mobilized soldiers who have been on the front line for more than a year.
• Back in September, Russian propaganda received an "urgent request" from the Russian presidential administration not to mention the new wave of mobilization in the country.