Russian President Vladimir Putin is said to be facing a "revolt" by his country's citizens over his invasion of Ukraine.
After a month of conflict, the Russian public is increasingly likely to try and "get rid of him" as they "see more body bags" coming home.
That is according to a former army officer and chemical weapons expert Hamish De Bretton-Gordon.
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He believes Putin's "biggest strategic weakness" is public opinion and implied that the President is facing pushback from his people over the war in Ukraine.
Mr De Bretton-Gordon said that the West is playing a "balancing game", trying to wait for the Russian people to remove Putin "before we have to get more engaged", as the Express reports.
He told the news outlet: "[Putin's] biggest strategic weakness is the Russian people.
"And they are just starting to get an idea of what is happening in Ukraine and as they see more body bags come back, they will get rid of him.
"For us, in the West, it is a balancing game - can we let the Russian people know what's happening so they get rid of him before we have to get more engaged?
"And can we do that before he goes chemical or nuclear?
"It's finely balanced.
"In his derided mind he probably thinks he can get away with it. He thinks we're weak. He thinks we're not going to do anything."
Mr De Bretton-Gordon, who is currently training Ukrainian citizens on how to survive a chemical attack, added: "It's the casualties that are his weakness.
"The Russian population are just getting to hear that they're taking a couple of casualties.
"Those casualties are not in the tens or the fifties. They're in the thousands.
"And once [the army] get into the cities they could exponentially rise."
People across Russia have staged protests in opposition to Putin's invasion of Ukraine, with thousands of people demonstrating in cities such as Moscow and St Petersburg.
This comes as increasing numbers of Russian casualties are being reported.
The Ukrainian Army has estimated that 15,600 Russian soldiers have been killed in the fighting so far.
This figure would mean that more Russian soldiers have died in around a month of fighting than those that were killed during the Soviet-Afghan War, which lasted for a decade.
Between 2,000 and 4,000 Ukrainian soldiers are believed to have been killed, according to US estimates.
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