Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a self-exiled Russian oligarch and a prominent Kremlin critic, said in an interview Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will end up waging war on NATO territory if the coalition does not help Ukraine win the current conflict.
Khodorkovsky made the warning during an interview with Euronews, a French-based television network. He called on NATO to continue to provide Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with weapons and supplies to fight the Russian army, which began its invasion in late February.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has condemned Putin for his attack on Ukraine and reiterated the organization’s support for Ukraine during a conversation with Politico on Wednesday. He said NATO has a “political and moral obligation to provide substantial support” to Zelensky’s country and will continue to supply weapons to Ukraine for “[a]whenever necessary “.
Putin has used the possible expansion of NATO as a reason to justify his invasion of Ukraine, although Finland and Sweden asked to join the alliance after the outbreak of war. He has also warned the organization and the US about direct involvement in the war.
Khodorkovsky told Shona Murray of Euronews: “Today, NATO has a great opportunity to help Ukraine defend its sovereignty by participating in this war with weapons, supplies and training Ukrainian soldiers, rather than fighting on its own territories.
“If this opportunity is missed, I make a warning: in a few years, or maybe even sooner, NATO will be directly involved in this war, because it will be happening in the territory of a NATO country.”
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Russian oligarch who served 10 years in prison for opposing President Vladimir Putin, said NATO runs the risk of war on its territory if Russia succeeds in Ukraine. In this photo, Khodorkovsky is seen during a press conference in London on November 20, 2018. Photo by DANIEL LEAL / AFP via Getty Images
At one point, Khodorkovsky was the richest man in Russia thanks to a major oil fortune, but then he began to openly criticize Putin. He founded the pro-democracy organization Open Russia in 2001, only to be arrested by Russian authorities in 2003 for tax evasion. He was convicted 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 prison time. However, after some high-profile pressure, Putin pardoned Khodorkovsky and released him in late 2013.
When Murray asked Khodorkovsky if he believed NATO should be directly involved in Ukraine, he replied that the alliance should do everything possible to ensure that Putin does not prevail.
“Those who believe that somehow an agreement can be reached with an aggressor are repeating the mistakes of their many predecessors,” he said.
Khodorkovsky also said he did not believe the sanctions imposed on Russia would have had a major impact. He said that while sanctions “may weaken the regime so that this aggression does not recur for a while”, the problems between Russia and Ukraine “are being resolved on the battlefield”.
Khodorkovsky added, moreover, that the weapons and supplies that NATO has sent to Ukraine are insufficient compared to the considerable amount of weapons in Putin’s arsenal.
“If NATO wants to settle on the territory of Ukraine, then, of course, it must provide much more systematic support,” he said.