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Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a self-exiled Russian oligarch and prominent critic of the Kremlin, said in an interview last Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will extend the war on NATO territory if the coalition does not help Ukraine to win in the current conflict.
Khodorkovsky made the warning during an interview with ‘
euronews‘, a television network based in France. The businessman called on NATO to continue providing Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky with weapons and supplies to fight the Russian army.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has condemned Putin for his attack on Ukraine and has reiterated his support. However, the Russian president has used the possible expansion of the organization as one of the reasons to justify invading him.
Khodorkovsky told ‘Euronews’ Shona Murray: “Today, NATO has a great opportunity to help Ukraine defend its sovereignty by participating in this war with weapons, supplies and training Ukrainian soldiers, instead of fighting on its own. territories. If this opportunity is missed, I issue a warning: in a few years, or maybe even sooner, NATO will be directly involved in this war, because it will take place on the territory of a NATO country».
At one point, Khodorkovsky was the richest man in Russia thanks to a significant oil fortune, but then he began to openly criticize Putin. He founded the pro-democracy organization Open Russia in 2001 and was arrested by Russian authorities in 2003 for tax evasion. He was found guilty in 2005 and sentenced to nine years in prison. Charges of embezzlement and money laundering were added to his sentence in 2010, which extended his jail time. However, Putin pardoned Khodorkovsky and he was released in late 2013.
When Murray asked Khodorkovsky if he felt NATO should be directly involved in Ukraine, he replied that the alliance must do everything possible to ensure that Putin does not prevail. “Those who believe that somehow a deal can be made with an aggressor are repeating the mistakes of many of his predecessors,” he said.
Khodorkovsky also said he doesn’t think the sanctions imposed on Russia have had much of an impact. He stated that while sanctions “may weaken the regime so that this aggression will not be repeated for some time”, the problems between Russia and Ukraine “are being resolved on the battlefield”. Khodorkovsky further added that the weapons and supplies that NATO has been sending to Ukraine are insufficient compared to Putin’s sizeable arsenal. “If NATO wants it to be resolved on the territory of Ukraine, then of course they need to provide much more systematic support,” he said.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism