“The Putin I knew was different.

He was Vladimir Putin's first head of government.

But, even in his worst nightmares, Mikhail Kassianov could not have imagined his former leader embarking on the invasion of Ukraine, he assures, during a rare interview, by videoconference, with the AFP.

Mikhaïl Kassianov, Prime Minister from 2000 to 2004 before going to the opposition, estimates that the war could last up to two years, but still believes that Russia will resume a “democratic path” one day.

Aged 64, the former minister of Vladimir Putin, who worked for the rapprochement between Moscow and Western countries, explains that he did not think, like many Russians, that a war would break out.

"Putin was not himself"

He explains that he finally understood what was looming three days before the invasion, when Vladimir Putin convened in a well-ordered staging the members of his Security Council for a meeting broadcast on television.

"When I watched that meeting of the Russian Security Council, I finally understood that yes, there would be a war," he said.

“I know these people and looking at them I saw that Putin was not himself.

Not medically, but politically,” he adds.

Dismissed by the president in 2004, Mikhail Kassianov joined the opposition and became one of the Kremlin's fiercest critics.

He now leads the People's Freedom Party (PARNAS), a small liberal party.

A system based on “total impunity”

According to its former Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, a 69-year-old former KGB agent, has built a system based on impunity and fear since coming to power in 2000.

“These are the achievements of a system which, with the encouragement of Putin as head of state, began to function in an even more cynical and cruel way than in the last stages of the Soviet Union”, judge-t- he.

“Basically, it's a KGB-like system based on total impunity.

It is clear that they do not expect to be punished,” he continues.

Mikhail Kassianov said he left Russia because of his opposition to the Russian offensive in Ukraine but refused to tell AFP in which country he was, citing security reasons.

“The Baltic countries will be next”

Boris Nemtsov, a critic of Vladimir Putin to whom Mikhail Kasyanov was close, was shot and killed near the Kremlin in 2015. And Alexei Navalny, the Russian president's pet peeve, was imprisoned after surviving poisoning in 2020. 'Ukraine falls, so the Baltic countries will be next' on the list, assures the opponent.

He added that he "categorically" disagreed with the idea that Vladimir Putin should not be humiliated, and against calls for Ukraine to accept territorial concessions in exchange for peace.

“What would Putin have done to deserve this?

“, he denounces: “It is a position much too pragmatic.

I think that's a mistake and I hope the West doesn't go down that road."

A decade to "depoutinize" the country

For the post-Putin period, Mikhaïl Kassianov thinks that his successor will be at the orders of the security services, but that he will not be able to control the system in place for very long and that democratic elections will eventually be organised.

"I am sure that Russia will return to the path of building a democratic state," he says, estimating that it will take a decade to "decommunize" and "depoutinize" the country.

“It will be very difficult, especially after this criminal war” in Ukraine, he warns.

For him, one of the priorities will be to repair trust with the European countries, which he considers to be Moscow's “natural partners”.

While the Russian opposition is often described as too divided to beat the Kremlin leader, the former prime minister also believes that the war in Ukraine has been a game-changer.

“After the tragedy we are witnessing, the opposition will unite.

I have no doubt about it,” he says, while underlining the magnitude of the task that awaits him then.

World

War in Ukraine: "I hate them", "they are degenerate", the violent exit of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

War in Ukraine: Putin was treated for “advanced cancer”, according to US intelligence leaks…

  • World

  • Vladimir Poutine

  • Russia

  • War in Ukraine