- A former Russian official said Ukraine’s resistance to Putin’s invasion drove him crazy.
- Mikhail Khodorkovsky said CNN That Putin expects to meet “flowers” in Ukraine.
- “Not only did that anger him, but I think it literally drove him crazy,” Khodorkovsky said.
An exiled Russian oligarch says Putin went crazy after predicting that the people of Ukraine would “receive him with flowers” when he invaded the country.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former CEO of Russian oil giant Yukos, said Fareed Zakaria on CNN on Sunday.
Khodorkovsky – who was once Russia’s richest man and was imprisoned for nine years for fraud and tax evasion until his release in 2013 – has been a vocal critic of Putin. He said that he was politically motivated behind his imprisonment.
Zakaria told that when the Ukrainians resisted the invasion, Putin went crazy.
Khodorkovsky said, “The fact that people in Kharkiv did not meet him with flowers, not only angered him, I really think drove him literally crazy. That’s when he started bombing Kharkiv and Kiev.”
Khodorkovsky said Putin has three ways out of this crisis: keep pressure on Ukraine, use weapons of mass destruction to force the Ukrainians to back down, or start “real” negotiations.
The exiled oligarch said last month that war in Ukraine would lead to this Putin’s downfall.
“I am convinced that Putin does not have much time left. Maybe a year, maybe three,” He told CNN.
On Saturday, former Russian Deputy Energy Minister Vladimir Milov said Erin Burnett from CNN Senior Russian government officials ‘personally destroyed’ Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, adding that it was only months before Putin loses his grip on power.
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