The leaders of Western powers are making the same mistakes with Russian President Vladimir Putin that their predecessors did with Hitler, says former Russian oil tycoon and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Khodorkovsky — once Russia's richest man — spent more than a decade in prison for tax evasion and fraud following a prosecution he said was part of a Kremlin campaign to destroy him. He now lives in exile overseas.
Speaking to CNN's Erin Burnett on Wednesday, Khodorkovsky said he sees parallels between the situation in Ukraine today and the lead up to World War II.
"Western leaders kept saying they were afraid to aggravate Hitler and they thought well, if you're not showing any resistance, eventually he'll stop," he said. "However, that mistake has cost hundreds of millions human lives. Hundreds of millions of human lives were lost and the same mistake is being committed now."
Some context: NATO is unwilling to get directly involved in the war beyond supporting Ukraine’s resistance as it could escalate the conflict.
On the ground, Ukraine's forces are being helped by Russia's corruption, Khodorkovsky said, adding: "the level of (Russia's) unpreparedness has come as a great surprise to me."
It comes after US officials said the Russian military is suffering shortages of food and fuel and is plagued with logistics and sustainment problems. One official said there are indications some Russian soldiers have gotten frost bite because they lack the appropriate cold-weather gear.
Going after the oligarchs: Asked whether Russian oligarchs deserved to be sanctioned by the West, Khodorkovsky replied that even though it was "preposterous" to think the tycoons had any real influence over Putin, those who continued to back the Russian leader were "dangerous."
"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."
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