Vladimir Putin’s invasion on Ukraine has trigged a drop in Russia’s birth rate, Western officials have said.
Sources suggest that with young Russian men fighting and dying in the war and families running away from conflict, the impact on the nation’s future is already unravelling.
“Our expectation is that we are going to see some really serious social decline,” said officials.
“Very large numbers of young, educated Russians have fled the country; there are already some early figures coming in showing significant declines in the birth rate.
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“We are seeing an increase in violent crime, repression continues to increase (and) propaganda continues to intensify.”
The UK is set to hold a minute’s silence at 11am next Friday to mark the anniversary of the war.
Chiefs have said that while conflict has been “devastating” for Ukraine, it had also been “terrible” and “humbling” for Russia.
“Rather than increasing Russia’s importance and stature and confirming its great power status, Russia has been diminished,” they warned.
“Its global influence has been significantly reduced, its mineral wealth, its human capital, has been squandered on a pointless war of aggression.”
Bosses added that the “future prospects look very bleak” for Russia with their economy forecast to plunge as Europe find gas supplies elsewhere and sanctions become tougher.
Experts have estimated that more than 100,000 Russians have been killed and seriously wounded – although the Kremlin refuse to confirm exact numbers.
Officials believe "that this is such a catastrophic error of judgement, and this is harming both the present and future of Russia, and humbling Russia to such a degree, that it has damaged President Putin."
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They added: “People are talking about succession in a way that they weren’t a year ago.
“But what there isn’t in a place like Russia is a clear pathway to change.”
The impact of the war could knock Putin from the top amid growing talks about who might succeed him.
However, they admitted that if Putin stood for election again in March next year - and the legitimacy of ballots in Russia are treated with scepticism by observers - “it’s hard to see that he wouldn’t win - in a way that one wins elections” in Russia.