“Initially Putin was saying that over the long run, the West and the US will lose focus, they will lose their nerve, they will stop supplying Ukraine. Just have patience.
“Now, two years later, he can say that the patience is beginning to pay off.
“It’s up to the West to show him that he is wrong but I think he is feeling very good about things and will continue on the path he has been on since the very beginning.”
Last week, Russia claimed it had pushed out the last remaining Ukrainian resistance in Avdiivka, a key town in the east of Ukraine.
Putin has also made headlines due to his actions in a domestic setting.
The death of opposition figure Alexei Navalny was announced earlier this month, with many believing that Putin had him killed.
Navalny was imprisoned in Russia on “extremism” charges after surviving a Novichok attack in 2020, which he later blamed on Putin.
Boris Nadezhdin, another opposition figure in Russia, was barred from this year’s elections after amassing support with his anti-war campaign.
Hall says Putin will also be happy with his control over the domestic debate in Russia.
He said: “Again I think he will be very positive. Elections are election in name, it is ridiculous in Russia. It is all pre-determined. It is just pageantry.
“That said it is also politically sensitive because people cannot come out and protest and so forth.
“Who is left to come out and lead that protest? Navalny? No, he is dead. Any other serious opposition, Putin has either taken them off the chessboard by killing them or marginalised them.
“Putin is feeling very good about that, and he has no problem sending hundreds of thousands of young Russian men to their deaths so that they can win Ukraine.”
