During the Cold War, which lasted almost half a century, the Soviet Union and the West worked to undermine each other without risking open conflict in Europe and potential nuclear war. Top European and NATO officials currently argue that Russia is reviving its policy of attrition, using hybrid warfare tactics to destabilize the West and sow division.
Khodorkovsky, who spent ten years behind bars in Putin’s prison system and now lives in London, downplayed the effectiveness of Western sanctions in swaying the Kremlin, saying they were “creating some pressure on the Russian economy, but nothing dramatic.”
He was similarly skeptical that Ukraine’s long-running drone campaign against Russian oil refineries would cripple the Kremlin’s war machine.
“Even the most powerful drone, even a Tomahawk missile, can hit about two hectares at most,” Khodorkovsky, the former owner of oil giant Yukos and once Russia’s richest man, explained.
“A typical facility in Siberia typically spans 1,500 hectares. The damage being done is the equivalent of stepping on someone’s foot,” he said.
In reality, Khodorkovsky argued, the only moment when Putin’s grip on power could realistically have been broken was during the first two years after his full-scale invasion began — if Russia had suffered a decisive military defeat in Ukraine.