As of: February 24, 2024, 5:32 p.m
By: Bettina Menzel
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Former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky with Russian President Vladimir Putin (archive photo - taken in 2002).
© Imago / Everett Collection
According to Kremlin opponent Khodorkovsky, Russia has a weak point.
The West must now aim for this - and deal a blow to Putin's external legitimacy.
London – He was once the richest man in Russia and now lives in exile: Former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been a sharp critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin for decades.
On the second anniversary of the Ukraine war, Alexei Navalny's former companion made clear statements about Putin's system.
The power of the Kremlin chief is a personal dictatorship, the opposition activist wrote in a guest article published on Sunday (February 24) in
Bild
.
But the Russian system still has a serious weakness - the West must act now to address this.
Kremlin critic: Putin's Russia's vulnerability has two components
Putin controls political power, the economy, the media and the electoral system, Khodorkovsky wrote in his
Bild
post on Sunday.
The Kremlin boss takes action against the opposition by using a "controlled legal system and security forces and even physically eliminating opponents who are dangerous to him, as in the case of Boris Nemtsov or Alexei Navalny." The opposition politician Nemtsov had, among other things, the slogan "Putin means war" represented and was shot dead in Moscow in 2015.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in a prison camp in Siberia.
But Putin still has a “serious weak point,” Khodorkovsky continued.
“It is the formal legitimacy that he needs to assert his claim to power.
This legitimacy is made up of two components: secure electoral victories and recognition by the international community - especially the Western democracies." The elites in Russia and society are aware that the electoral system is completely controlled.
The extent of the dissatisfaction remains hidden.
Putin's legitimacy is based on "the fact that there is no way to convey to the public an image of actual support for the head of state," believes the Kremlin opponent.
“Lunch against Putin”: Khodorkovsky calls on supporters to come to polling stations
Critical voices in the Russian public have largely fallen silent; the reprisals are too great: Putin, for example, has critics of the Ukraine war dispossessed and thrown in prison for up to 15 years.
But Khodorkovsky suggests another way to deal a blow to Putin's legitimacy.
“We are calling on our supporters to come to the polling stations on a specific day and time.
“You can’t ban that, you can’t prosecute it,” said the former oligarch.
But he hopes that the large number of people who go to polling stations in a coordinated manner cannot be overlooked or interpreted differently.
“Lunch against Putin” (also: “Lunch against Putin”)
For the presidential election in Russia on March 17, the opposition is calling on all opponents of the Kremlin leader to come to the polling stations at exactly twelve noon.
“We want to produce a crowd,” Yevgeny Nasyrov, the coordinator of Alexei Navalny’s movement in Germany, told AFP.
“Even those who don’t vote, even if they aren’t Russian” – everyone should come to “Lunch Against Putin”.
Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnaya also supports the campaign.
Kremlin critic and former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Stockholm in 2023 (archive photo).
© Imago/Henrik Montgomery/TT
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This action is called “Lunch against Putin” and Alexei Navalny also supported the idea, which attacks Putin’s internal legitimacy.
But external legitimacy is also important to the Kremlin leader, claims Khodorkovsky, citing the interview with US presenter Tucker Carlson as an indication.
The West now has a unique opportunity: “You can negotiate a ceasefire or a hostage exchange with Putin.
[...] But one cannot congratulate him on his election as President of Russia and wish him a successful term in office.”
The West must “take tougher action against a war criminal and murderer,” demands Khodorkovsky, who has long accused the West of taking a too soft stance.
For example, if US President Joe Biden did not recognize the presidency, or at least took his time to do so, Putin would be “sustainably weakened,” said the Kremlin critic in a recent interview with Der
Spiegel
.
The people in the country would then also ask themselves questions.
“It is one thing to fight and die at the behest of a legitimate president, another when that president is not recognized as legitimate,” Khodorkovsky continued.
Kremlin critics in exile: How Khodorkovsky stood up to Putin
Khodorkovsky learned firsthand what happens when you defy Putin.
In 2003, the Russian president and the businessman had an argument in front of cameras.
The head of the oil and gas company Yukos suggested that the Kremlin had enriched itself by acquiring an oil production company.
In 2006, Khodorkovsky's Yukos concern was declared bankrupt.
Allegedly because the businessman had not paid billions of euros in taxes.
The company was broken up and the former oligarch was jailed for ten years.
As an international arbitration tribunal found in 2014, the aim was to “eliminate Khodorkovsky as a potential rival to President Putin and seize the property of Yukos.”
Last Tuesday, an appeals court in Amsterdam confirmed to former Yukos shareholders that Russia had to pay them $50 billion (around €46 billion) in damages.
Today the Kremlin critic Khodorkovsky lives in the British capital London.
In view of the upcoming elections in Russia, the former oligarch had thrown his support behind the opposition candidate Boris Nadezhdin.
However, the Kremlin did not allow him to vote.
Putin is certain of re-election.
To this end, Russia recently rewrote the constitution: the Kremlin chief could now remain president until 2036.