More than a month after the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, no way out still seems to be emerging. While the fighting continues, the negotiations are floundering. Talks resumed in Istanbul on Tuesday March 29 between the two parties, but hopes of reaching an agreement are tenuous. Ukrainians are afraid to see their country to be cut in half “Korean style”, while the Russians announced that they would concentrate on the East of the country. Eyes are still and always turned towards the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Observers wonder about the state of mind of the one Joe Biden called a “butcher” and its future plans. For Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former CEO of Yukos who knew Putin well, we should not delude ourselves: “He is already at war against NATO”. “When Macron or Scholz go out of their way to emphasize that they are not at war with Russia, it makes Putin shrug his shoulders, he has thought the opposite for a long time,” added in an interview at Figaro the one who was the richest man in Russia before spending 10 years in prison after opposing the regime in place.
If he felt that the head of the Kremlin had become “more emotional”, he nevertheless postulated that he remained completely “rational”. “It can serve him to seem no longer to be, to scare,” he said, however. As to Russian setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine, Mr. Khodorkovsky described them as being simply the result of the isolation in which Putin immersed himself. “He was very poorly informed about the spirit that animates the Ukrainians, as about the state of his army. It is typical of dictatorial regimes. I think he really fell from the clouds”, continued the opponent with our colleagues from Figaro.
“The Russian president risks falling within two years”
For Mikhail Khodorkovsky, theoutcome of the conflict will be decisive for the future of the Russian president. “If he fails to convince of a victory in Ukraine, Putin risks falling within two years,” he postulated. He also pointed to the importance of the current situation in the mind of the head of the Kremlin. “Putin has always been a gangster at the head of a gang of gangsters,” detailed the opponent. “There he found himself a mission, which is typical of mafiosi too. At the end of their existence, they have bizarre ideas to justify the life they have lived.”