What does Putin do next? Welcome to The i Paper’s opinion series in which our writers and experts take a deeper look at the future for the Russian leader. • Putin is getting more desperate. It won’t end well• Furious Putin is trapped in a gilded cage. Only death will free him• Putin and Xi’s bromance could fall apart – and it’s all down to Trump• I’m an Eastern European – I know what Putin plans for my country• Putin has made a vast strategic error. This relationship shows us why• Putin’s fortress Russia has one weakness: The enemy within

What does Putin do next? Welcome to The i Paper’s opinion series in which our writers and experts take a deeper look at the future for the Russian leader.

• Putin is getting more desperate. It won’t end well• Furious Putin is trapped in a gilded cage. Only death will free him• Putin and Xi’s bromance could fall apart – and it’s all down to Trump• I’m an Eastern European – I know what Putin plans for my country• Putin has made a vast strategic error. This relationship shows us why• Putin’s fortress Russia has one weakness: The enemy within

Before Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on 24 February, 2022, few would have predicted that North Korea, a nation that seems stuck rigidly in the past, could become a key participant in a modern war. Four years later, we know better.

During this time, the hermit kingdom of North Korea has behaved in ways that hardly befit its long-standing nickname. Thus far, Pyongyang has sent 12 million rounds of artillery, coupled with at least 100 ballistic missiles, to Russia. Nearly 15,000 troops have been deployed, primarily to the Kursk region of Ukraine, together with thousands of construction workers, deminers and engineers.

Most of the troops dispatched in the autumn of 2024, in the first deployment of circa 11,000, were from the country’s élite special forces (the Storm Corps) and the Reconnaissance General Bureau. The latter is North Korea’s intelligence agency responsible for clandestine operations at home and abroad, akin to (though not quite the same as) the........

© iNews