Kremlin expert explains Merkel's main mistake towards Putin - and warns against Ukraine concession

Created: 07/06/2022 1:39 p.m

By: Patrick Mayer

President of Russia: Vladimir Putin.

© Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool AP/dpa

Former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky is considered a long-standing warning against the threat posed by Moscow ruler Vladimir Putin.

In an interview he analyzes the Russian President.

He's not the only one doing this.

Munich/Moscow - He was in prison in Russia for ten years from 2003, presumably because he had messed with President Vladimir Putin.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the richest man in the huge country that currently has 144 million inhabitants.

He had made his money with energy, but after his arrest his oil company Yukos was broken up.

He is said to have evaded taxes on a large scale.

That was the accusation from the Russian judiciary, but the human rights organization Amnesty International described his conviction as politically motivated.

Thanks to mediation from Germany, Khodorkovsky was released in 2013 and moved to London with his family.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky: He criticized Vladimir Putin's system in Russia

It was probably too risky for him to stay in his homeland.

In an interview with the

, the now 59-year-old claimed that the courts in Russia are not independent and that human rights only exist on paper.

In addition, the media would practice a kind of self-censorship.

Today he is a sought-after man.

Just one week after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he gave an interview to ZDF in early March.

“Influencing Putin?

That's fine!

But they must not be simple words.

Someone has to tell him: 'Vladimir, you're finished!'” he told the “heute journal” at the time and went on to explain: “And to say that, you need the military resistance that the Ukrainians are now putting up.

And the toughest sanctions are needed.” These would “affect my people very much, all Russians, maybe me too.

But what else can we do to stop the war?”

Ukraine war: Kremlin experts examine German Russia policy under Angela Merkel

The Ukraine war has already lasted four and a half months.

In another interview, Khodorkovsky explains the mistakes in Germany's Russia policy - at least from his perspective.

He met the Federal President and former Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier a few times, whom he "considered to be a very sincere person".

Longtime critic of Vladimir Putin: Mikhail Khodorkovsky, here in Berlin in 2013.

© Michael Kappeler/dpa

"He was just wrong about Putin for a long time, but without any ulterior motives, and when he realized that, he corrected his image," he said in an interview with the news magazine

and said of the ex-Chancellor: "The much appreciated Angela Merkel in turn, Putin correctly judged from the start.

When I talked to her, I got the impression that she understood Putin no less than I did.

Her only mistake was that she thought she could keep Putin in check.

As we can now see, there was not enough strength for that.”

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He himself has told politicians in the West a hundred times: "If you want to understand Putin, talk to a detective inspector from a disadvantaged part of your country.

He'll explain how to talk to people like that," Khodorkovsky explains, and with a view to the West's negotiations with Russia, warns: "You can't negotiate with bandits as long as they don't sense your strength.

On the contrary, if you negotiate while the bandit feels strong, you recognize his strength, and then he keeps going until he gets what he wants.” Khodorkovsky calls for demonstrating strength to Kremlin boss Putin.

In the video: Compact - The most important news about the Russia-Ukraine war

This coincides with the current assessment of a British scientist.

“The moment certainly seemed appropriate to Vladimir Putin.

Now he has made a cynical bet – and is hoping for a win in the end,” says the well-known economic historian Harold James from Princeton University in an interview with

.

He justifies said bet because of the sanctions against Russia with the economic pressure on both sides.

Ukraine war too big a risk for Vladimir Putin?

If defeated, historian believes Moscow will turn around

“The Russian aviation industry urgently needs spare parts from the West, as does the Russian energy industry.

And the embargo is also making itself felt militarily.

The Russian army has to use weapon systems in Ukraine that are less precise.

Putin cannot afford this kind of warfare.

At least not for a long time,” says the 66-year-old professor, who teaches in New Jersey, USA.

He believes that a "Russian defeat in Ukraine could actually turn the tide for the better."

Because the Vladimir Putin system would collapse in Moscow?

If you give something to a bandit, he thinks he can take everything from you.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Vladimir Putin

“Putin took all the risks.

In 1856 Russia lost the Crimean War, later Tsar Alexander II freed the serfs, after the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War the first Duma was established (

. ).

Not to mention the February Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power,” James gives examples in an interview with

: “And the war in Afghanistan was not the only cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union, certainly contributed to that.”

Meanwhile, Kremlin critic Khodorkovsky warns against too big concessions to Ukraine with a view to the future of the Donbass.

He explains to

: “The idea of ​​giving something to Putin to calm him down is absurd.

If you give something to a bandit, he thinks he can take everything from you."