While German intellectuals are currently vehemently calling for negotiations with Russia, Kremlin opponent Khodorkovsky is convinced that peace with Putin is impossible. He estimates that there is a lot of resistance among the Russian elites. He wants to target these people.
The Russian anti-Kremlin Mikhail Khodorkovsky does not believe in a peace solution for Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “As long as Putin’s regime is in power, the war will not end,” said Khodorkovsky in Munich before the official start of the Munich Security Conference (MSC). He discussed the theses of his new book “How to kill a dragon. Handbook for prospective revolutionaries”, which is published by Europa Verlag.
Khodorkovsky described Russian society as deeply divided down to the families because of the war against Ukraine. This is not yet a war of the Russian people. If, under the conditions of a dictatorship, 15 to 20 percent of the people said they were against the war, that was a lot. He considers the “active support” for the war or the willingness to volunteer for the Russian military to be minimal. Putin is trying to make people believe that the reason for the war doesn’t matter, but a defeat is bad for them and their families. Khodorkovsky advocated a deep federalization of Russia as an alternative to a centralized state that needed an external enemy to survive.
The ex-head of the now defunct oil company Yukos, who was convicted after criticizing Putin and spent several years in a prison camp, now lives in London. He was questioned at the MSC event by journalist Katja Gloger, who pointed out that the book’s English title is significantly longer: “How to Kill a Dragon and Avoid Creating a New One.”
In an interview with the Swiss newspaper “Blick” last week, Khodorkovsky said that the Russian elites had to be convinced that they could turn their backs on the government “without having their heads cut off.” There is resistance, but it only becomes apparent when the government begins to falter. He and his colleagues are in contact with elites and reach the public via social media.
A conversion of Russia into a federal system would take at least twenty years, Khodorkovsky said. “Russia is currently developing where Germany was shortly after the end of the Second World War.” He encouraged Western countries to poach Russian engineers and other professionals and make it easier for them to establish themselves in Western countries in order to weaken Russia.
