Political expert predicts three-step method Vladimir Putin would deploy to start World War 3

A political expert has shared a chilling prediction about what he thinks would happen if Vladimir Putin were to trigger wide-scale war in Europe.

It would seem that Russian propagandists sure love nothing more than mouthing off about the prospect of global war and nuclear annihilation, don't they.

In the last couple of weeks we've had pro-Kremlin talking heads tell British and French troops that they 'will all die' should they step foot in Ukraine.

Russia has also previously wheeled out simulations showing how a nuclear strike would 'sink' the entire country and 'leaked' lists of nuclear targets in the UK.

The Russian threats have also coincided with a series of ominous warnings from EU leaders urging citizens to prepare 72-hour survival kits should the unthinkable happen and ministers in Germany calling for children to receive civil defence training.

So it's understandable if you're feeling like things are pretty apocalyptic at the moment.

One expert believes we'd avoid nuclear war, but the alternative isn't much better (Getty Stock Images)

Thankfully threats from the east haven't materialised into actual acts of war as of yet, but if war were to spill out across the European continent then one political expert believes it wouldn't end well for us Brits.

Outlining how the Russian leader could declare war, the University of Buckingham's Professor Anthony Glees explained to The Mirror last February that conflict with Putin would unfold in three steps.

Threats made against western nations

Professor Glees began by outline a hypothetical situation by stating that should Russia be able to declare victory in Ukraine, Putin would then follow up by putting pressure on former USSR countries which joined NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

This includes countries such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Hungary.

He believed the Russian leader would also attempt to 'subvert our democratic system' in order to divide nations such as the UK.

Putin's pro-Kremlin talking heads do sure love to talk big when it comes to war (GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

"His skill set is of the Soviet intelligence community, and their aim has always been to make threats, to subvert and to hollow out their potential enemies," he explained.

An attack on NATO

Should war break out and nuclear weapons not be deployed, Professor Glees stated that it would be a 'war of attrition' as the two sides gradually ground each other down.

Meanwhile things would also become pretty grim on the home front, as resources such as 'fresh food' and 'petrol' would become scarce.

"We would run out of fresh food in days. We would quickly see a black market for home-produced food and clothing," he said.

The historian also speculated that Russia could target 'critical national infrastructure' in order to inflict maximum upheaval on our day-to-day lives.

"Petrol and diesel would be virtually unobtainable for ordinary people. Medicines would quickly be subject to severe rationing and would soon disappear altogether."

He also suggested that conscription, something which the UK government has previously ruled out, would be put into use.

We become a Russian satellite state

The final stage of Professor Glees rather depressing scenario involves the UK becoming 'a Russian colony' and led by a pro-Kremlin puppet leader while resistance movements would organise from places such as Wales and Scotland.

He predicts this scenario could take as little as a month to come true in the advent of conventional war, which would be a tall order for a country which has taken just 20 percent of Ukraine in three years.

If this is the alternative to nuclear war, then maybe the bomb doesn't sound too bad after all.