Exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has claimed that Vladimir Putin is signalling that he’s ready to strike a deal on Ukraine with Donald Trump.
Talking on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Mr Khodorkovsky thinks any settlement might contain ceding land to Russia.
“I have the impression that Putin has sent Trump a signal that he is ready for a deal.
“Putin needs to get the entire of Donbas, these elements of it he hasn’t occupied but,” he said, but warned that the Russian president may aim to secure territorial gains in eastern Ukraine to “destabilise the state of affairs” in the remainder of the nation.
He additionally cautioned whether or not it was doable to understand the US and Russian leaders’ methods, forward of hypothesis about an upcoming Trump-Putin assembly in Hungary.
“I have already started getting doubts about understanding Putin and what he really wants,” including that he “never had any idea” about Trump or making an attempt to know him.
Mr Khodorkovsky, the previous head of oil big Yukos who spent over a decade in a Russian jail and now lives in London, additionally issued a stark critique of Britain’s diplomatic capability to reply to Kremlin manoeuvres.
He argued that the Overseas Workplace has misplaced the deep experience on Russia it as soon as possessed, leaving the UK ill-equipped to affect Moscow or help the Russian opposition successfully.
“What Britain is missing at the moment is knowledgeable information about Russia, which it possessed about 30 years in the past.
“It would make sense for the UK to also have a dialogue with people who have the knowledge and expertise and who are natural allies of the British government.”
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Mikhail Khodorkovsky thinks a Ukraine peace deal may be doable. Pic: dpa/AP
He urged Overseas Secretary Yvette Cooper to raise Britain’s position not solely in supporting Ukraine but additionally in actively participating with Russian dissidents as a strategic lever towards Mr Putin.
Mr Khodorkovsky was additionally requested about how lengthy the Russian president can stay in energy and any potential position for the Russian opposition.
“I think by putting psychological pressure on Putin, creating a set of problems for Putin that he has to resolve himself or be engaged in resolving himself – and the consolidation of the opposition is one of such problems – all this is actually an opportunity to put pressure on the pivotal point of this conflict. And the pivotal point is Putin himself.”
Mr Khodorkovsky instructed Phillips he risked life imprisonment if he returned to Russia, including that the Kremlin had not too long ago filed a further cost towards him, which he believed “could also mean violence used against me outside Russia”.
Regardless of the dangers, he stays centered on ending the warfare in Ukraine: “Stopping this war… would be much more important than waiting another few years for Putin to leave the stage.”
