Khodorkovsky (former Russian oligarch): People will not be safe as long as Putin remains in power

By Chase Peterson-Withorn

Speaking in a packed hall at the Milken Institute’s annual conference in Beverly Hills, Mikhail Khodorkovsky – Russia’s richest man – before he broke up with Russian President Vladimir Putin and was arrested, imprisoned, imprisoned and imprisoned. warning: “People will not be safe as long as Putin remains in power.”

During a panel discussion Tuesday morning with former US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, US Senator Victoria Spartz and German politician Peter Bayer, Khodorkovsky warned the audience about the Russian president who has begun against Ukraine in February.

“A healthy person would not start such a war,” Khodorkovsky said. “But it is not so abnormal that it is no longer dangerous. It is dangerous.”

According to Khodorkovsky, those who believe that the West can negotiate peace with Putin and return to “normal trade” with Russia are making a “very dangerous thought.” “In the last 20 years, Putin has faced his internal problems four times starting a war: in 1999, 2008, 2014 and now 2022,” Khodorkovsky said, referring to the conflicts in Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine. “If, after the end of this war, you are going to facilitate its ability to rearm, the only thing you will achieve is the same thing once again.”

On the contrary, Khodorkovsky argued that Putin should eventually be replaced as Russia’s leader. “The exit strategy should be: ‘We do not want to see him in power, but he does not necessarily have to leave power right now.’ This is a fairly adequate exit strategy for him.”

He said in the meantime that sanctions would not be aimed at Putin, who’s about 30 percent of the population, but would force the rest of the population to question the war.

“Sanctions have two other very important aspects,” he added. First, in the short term, blocking the financial dealings of Russian oligarchs – or, as Khodorkovsky called them, “Putin’s agents” – prevents Putin from being able to buy things. “Because of this, at least three factories producing military equipment and high-tech weapons have been forced to stop production. This is a very important result.” Second, technological sanctions are increasing the cost of oil and gas production, and shrinking European markets are forcing Russia to sell oil and gas to Asia, which, according to Khodorkovsky, is more expensive and less profitable. .

Khodorkovsky, the former head of the Russian oil and gas giant Yukos, was once one of the country’s most important oligarchs. In 2004, Forbes estimated him to be the richest man in Russia and the 15th richest man in the world, with a fortune of about $ 15 billion. But this did not last long. After clashing with Putin, who allegedly claimed during a televised meeting in the Kremlin that key government officials were accepting millions in bribes, Khodorkovsky was arrested for tax evasion, embezzlement and fraud. He was imprisoned until December 2013 on charges he vehemently denied, when – with his influence exhausted and his business empire disbanded – he was pardoned by Putin and flown to Germany. He now lives in London and remains a critic of Putin, urging his fellow Russian businessmen to sever ties with the Russian president.

“It is the desire of every gangster, a mobster – and this is exactly what Putin is – to intimidate anyone in front of him,” Khodorkovsky said. “He wants to show that he is almost crazy, that you have no idea what to expect from him, and that the Russian people are also almost crazy and God knows what he could do. But that is not the case at all. People want to live. “Putin wants to live. Nobody wants to commit suicide.”

But in the end, according to Khodorkovsky, only regime change will ease tensions between the United States and Russia.

“The conflict can be stopped temporarily with Putin’s involvement,” Khodorkovsky said. “But the conflict with the United States and Russia will not end as long as Putin is in power.”