(Bloomberg) The United States and its Western allies do not understand that, from President Vladimir Putin's perspective, they are already at war with Russia, said Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of Yukos Oil Co. in exile and that he was the richest person in the country.
With the US and major powers increasing sanctions against Moscow, supplying arms to Kiev and training the Ukrainian army, Putin believes that his country is essentially at war with the US and Europe on Ukrainian soil, Khodorkovsky said in an interview in Washington.
Western arguments that draw a hard line between the conflict on Ukrainian territory and the spread of war on the territory of NATO members are a nuance that means little to Putin, said Khodorkovsky, whose break with the Russian leader in the early 2000s led him to spend nearly ten years in prison. before leaving for exile.
“Putin has said from the beginning that this war includes them,” said Khodorkovsky, 58. Putin “believes that NATO is weak and that they will not defend the Baltic countries” if Russia attacks those nations, all former members of the Soviet Union. If that happens, Putin believes that “NATO will collapse and that means that US global influence” will collapse.
U.S. and NATO officials have repeatedly said that they will respect the alliance's central charter, according to which an attack on one is an attack on all. But as Ukraine is not a member of the alliance, other countries have refused to send their own forces to defend the country or to take measures, such as the imposition of a no-fly zone, which would be considered an offensive action against Russia, thus expanding the conflict.
Russia, for its part, has argued that NATO's expansion eastward has become an existential threat to security, even though Ukraine was not being seriously considered as a member.
With the war now in its second month, Khodorkovsky said he believes that the US needs to show Putin “a policy of consistent force,” noting that economic sanctions alone do not frighten him. He added that, despite Western hopes, he does not think that sanctioning the current Russian billionaires will have much impact on Putin's way of thinking about how to proceed in Ukraine.
Officials of the Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Khodorkovsky is in Washington, where he met Friday with US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland and officials of the National Security Council on Tuesday, according to a State Department official. White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Khodorkovsky, who also met with foreign policy experts at the Atlantic Council, said he was asked about Putin's mood and how he sees the war unfolding. He said he arrived in Washington after meeting with “important people” in Germany, without naming them.
The former executive praised President Joe Biden's warnings to Putin against the use of weapons of mass destruction in the Ukrainian war, saying it was a sign of effective communication with the Russian leader. He added that, while he believes that much of the world misinterpreted Biden's comments that Putin should no longer rule Russia, the comments were important.
“If the US wants to be a moral leader, it has to make a moral statement,” he said. Biden said his comments did not indicate a policy of regime change, but “expressed the moral indignation he felt.”
Khodorkovsky had an estimated fortune of $15 billion, according to Forbes. He was part of the first generation of Russian businessmen who became rich in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In the interview, Khodorkovsky said he hadn't met with Putin in 18 years, when he was stripped of his wealth and later jailed on charges of tax evasion and money laundering which he claimed were a retaliation for supporting political parties opposed to the Russian leader. Released in 2013, he now lives in London.
Original Note:
Ex-Oligarch Says Putin Sees War With the West Already Underway
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