Vladimir Putin will start a war with NATO if his invasion of Ukraine succeeds, a prominent Russian dissident has warned. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once said to be Russia’s richest man, said “internal problems” could force Putin into a military confrontation with the West. The businessman, who became a philanthropist, has lived in the United Kingdom since 2015. He made his fortune in the 1990s through currency trading, according to Vanity Fair, and also ran the oil company Yukos. He has been a vocal critic of President Putin since taking office. In 2003, he was jailed for tax evasion and fraud and spent ten years in prison, but was pardoned shortly before the 2014 Winter Olympics. In an interview with the Financial Times, he said the threat of an escalation from the conflict with the West is serious if Putin achieves his goal of occupying the Donbas region.
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“If we do not manage to deal with this scourge in Ukraine, we will have to deal with it in other territories,” he told the newspaper. “It simply came to our notice then. If it wins now in Ukraine, due to internal problems, it will start a war with NATO. “And he will eventually lose this war.” His warning came as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged Western leaders to continue their support for Ukraine despite the high financial cost of a protracted conflict. “We have to prepare for the fact that it may take years. “We must not relinquish our support for Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. “Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, but also because of rising energy and food prices.” His comments come ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid later this month, where officials are expected to agree on a bailout package for Ukraine that will help the country move from Soviet-era weapons to NATO-standard equipment.
