He was once the richest man in Russia. Now, the self-exiled oligarch and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovskymakes analyzes in western media for his mistakes Vladimir Putin and calls on the rest of the Russian billionaires to condemn him publicly.
In an interview with CNNthe 58-year-old tycoon reported that Putin “went crazy” when he saw that the Ukrainians did not welcome her Russian special military operation.
“The fact that people in Kharkov did not greet him with flowers did not just anger him, I think they drove him crazy. “Then he started bombing Kharkov and Kyiv.”
“Say publicly that Putin is a war criminal”
In another interview, Khodorkovsky asks from the rest of the Russian billionaires who have left their homeland to publicly condemn Vladimir Putin.
In fact, he warns that if his “colleagues” do not do so, then they will rightly be suspected of collaborating with the Kremlin.
“You have to take a microphone and say that Putin is a war criminal and commits a crime, that the war in Ukraine is a crime. “If you say that, then we will understand that Putin has no influence on you,” Khodorkovsky warned the other members of the Russian elite who have left the country.
According to the Washington Post, where he gave an interview, the Russian tycoon referred to other well-known oligarchs such as Mikhail Friedman and Peter Aven of the Alfa Group.
They were all part of the original group of seven oligarchs who controlled Russia’s economy in the 1990s. Friedman and Aven fled Russia after the invasion of Ukraine and have been the target of European and British sanctions.
Khodorkovsky also referred to Anatoli Chubais, the Kremlin special envoy whose departure from Russia last month fell like a “bomb”. Chombais oversaw the privatizations that took place in the 1990s, thanks to which the Russian oligarchs became rich.
Although the Friedman and Aven have openly complained about being targeted by Western sanctions and the former at least called the war in Ukraine “a huge tragedy”, but have not condemned the Russian invasion or Putin himself.
For his part, Mikhail Khodorkovsky says that certainly his two “colleagues” can not influence Putin to end the war. On the other hand, if they want to see the sanctions lifted against them, they must show that they are independent of the Russian president.
The self-exiled oligarch warned that Russian tycoons can get their partners to pay for supplies and products that are under embargoas well as to influence European politicians in favor of Putin.
That is why he asked his wealthy compatriots to say that they regret associating with the Russian leader and that they will not do it again, even if it puts their lives in danger.
“It’s a real war. People die every day. The regime you worked for killed people. “In comparison, your personal fate is not so important,” Khodorkovsky said, urging Russian oligarchs to take the risk and “stop the war criminal.”
As for why Putin invaded Ukraine, the billionaire believes that the Russian president was very isolated and the few who had access to him may have been able to tell him exactly what he wanted to hear.
“It was his fault, because I do not know how much longer he would have remained in power if he had behaved calmly. “Now it will be much more difficult for him,” he concluded.
Who is Mikhail Khodorkovsky?
These words of Mikhail Khodorkovsky will surely impress the economic elite of Russia, where he always presented himself as the black sheep.
As the rest of the oligarchs became richer, Khodorkovsky rotted in prison for a decade.
The 58-year-old was one of the first to get rich in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, in 2003 he was arrested and imprisoned for 10 years in Siberia, while his oil tanker, Yukos, was confiscated by the Russian state.
He has been living in London for the last few years and his fortune is estimated at $ 15 billion.
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