Vladimir Putin more dangerous than ever, warns Russia expert PROFESSOR MARK GALEOTTI

Yesterday’s horrific attacks on Ukraine — which Vladimir Putin claims was “retaliation” for Ukraine’s successful attack on the Kerch Bridge — are a sign that the Russian president, if not desperate, is getting closer.

They represent a very important psychological shift for the beleaguered leader. He’s no longer trying to win the war: now he’s just trying not to visibly lose it.

Previously, he could have defined victory the way he wanted. But by annexing Ukrainian regions, he has raised the already high stakes. If he gives up supposedly ‘Russian’ territory, he becomes the tsar who gave away Russian land instead of the strongman who restored the empire.

And by ordering partial mobilization on September 21, he ensured that the war now affects every Russian family. Putin has made the catastrophic mistake of calling his own bluff.

He realizes that he is fighting for his political life and, as we have seen before, he is ready to sacrifice countless lives on the altar of his own ambition. In 2000, he killed 118 men on the stricken Kursk submarine instead of accepting help from the West to save them.

Now he is willing to accept an alarming number of victims among the poorly trained conscripts he has sent to Ukraine.

The Russian military has been revealed as shoddy, incompetent and ill-equipped. Money that should have been spent on maintenance was transferred. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army, equipped with 21st century weapons by the West and highly skilled, thanks in part to British training, has awed with its indomitable spirit.

Failure on the battlefield reflects badly on Putin personally, as he has built himself up as a warrior president despite having no military experience. A few years ago I met a group of Russian officers who, after alcohol had smeared their tongues, were tarnishing Putin’s military pretensions. “I wouldn’t want a virgin telling me what to do on my wedding night,” one said.

These feelings are more and more widespread in Russia. Putin has come under increasing fire from nationalists demanding tougher measures in Ukraine. For now, he is still a rational actor. But anger, self-preservation and political pressure can change this.

There are nightmare scenarios that he has kept locked up until now. Now cornered like the rat he once famously chased as a boy in a St. Petersburg basement, he unlocks them. Yesterday’s rocket attacks were designed to sow terror – Putin knows he can only win if he crushes Ukraine’s resistance, or the West’s will to continue to support Kiev. We must brace ourselves for attacks closer to home.

He could unleash his cyber war trolls to disrupt the banking system, for example. More economic calamity could ensue, disrupting global food and energy supplies. I believe the blowing up of the Nordstream gas line was a warning, ‘Look what I can do.’ Undersea Internet cables are among other likely targets. And we will see more attempts to disrupt politics, such as the upcoming US midterm elections. Putin has not yet attacked supply lines bringing weapons to Ukraine for fear of retaliation from NATO.

But there may be more covert operations in Europe — such as when Russian agents blew up an arms depot near Prague in 2014.

I believe his nuclear threats are largely bluff. But if Ukrainians launch attacks on Crimea in the future, Putin might think he has nothing to lose, because losing the peninsula would kill him.

As a KGB officer in East Germany in 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, Putin brandished a pistol at crowds storming into KGB headquarters, successfully bluffing that more armed troops were inside. Now he has no more bluffs and no more options.

And that worries us all.

Mark Galeotti is an honorary professor at the University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies and the author of 24 books on Russia, including a biography of Vladimir Putin.