Reuters features the Atlantic Council’s Mikhail Khodorkovsky event, Russia’s Strategic Interest with the West, in an article about Putin’s confrontation with West:
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s confrontation with the West is “artificial” and aimed at protecting Russia’s ruling elite and distracting attention from a corrupt system, a former Russian oil tycoon said on Wednesday.
“The current confrontation with the West is absolutely artificial,” Mikhail Khodorkovsky told the Atlantic Council think tank.
“The cooling of relations has been inspired by those Russian elites who want to hold on to power.”
Speaking through a translator, Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, said, “They desperately need an image of an enemy who would distract the attention of the populace from the corruption and inefficiency that exists in the power.”