A former Russian oil tycoon and President Vladimir Putin’s critic, Mikhail Khodorkovsky has said that Russia’s unpreparedness for the ongoing war it declared against Ukraine surprises him.
Speaking with CNN, the former oil tycoon said that “on the ground, Ukraine’s forces are being helped by Russia’s corruption.”
Khodorkovsky stated this following US officials’ claims that the Russian military is suffering shortages of food and fuel and is plagued with logistics and sustainment problems.
There are other reports that one official said some Russian soldiers have gotten frostbite because they lack the appropriate cold-weather gear and Zhodorkovsky said “the level of [Russia’s] unpreparedness has come as a great surprise to me.”
He said the oligarchs backing Putin on the invasion of Ukraine are ‘dangerous’ people.
Khodorkovsky, however, said it was “preposterous” for anyone to think the oligarchs had any real influence over Putin.
“Oligarchs are not true oligarchs in the sense that they actually do not influence Putin,” he said.
“Yet they are Putin’s instruments of influence and to see for real who has broken their relations with Putin would be when they actually denounce him and when they admit that he is a war criminal.
“And if that doesn’t happen, that means they still depend on him and they’re still dangerous,” he added.
