The parliament, and not the president, should exercise power in Russia, Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky said in Lithuania on Friday, adding that the end of Vladimir Putin’s regime “will not be long in coming”.
According to Khodorkovsky, Russia should be a real federal state and the parliament should be the supreme instrument of power.
He believes this to be the only way to curb Russia’s imperial ambitions, the former oil tycoon said after the Vilnius Russia Forum in the district of Trakai.
“There should be no presidential post in Russia; there should be a parliament and the country should be federal, with regions representing the federal centres. Only if Russia is reorganised into regions, will the imperial intention lose its power,” said the head of the Open Russia Foundation.
The opposition figure said he was confident that Putin will lose power in Russia.
“I'm sure it won’t be long before that happens. He [Putin] made a dramatic mistake when he attacked Ukraine,” he said.
Khodorkovsky believes that once this happens, hundreds of thousands of Russians will return to their homeland and will work to change the county.
According to the opposition activist, “it makes sense” to talk to Russian opponents of Putin.
“I’m grateful to Lithuania that you are ready to talk. This is very important. The role that you have in the European Union, the people who understand what is going on, the people who are concerned about it, the people who are knocking on the heads of those in Europe who think that there is nothing special going on, that it is possible to come to an agreement with Putin again,” he said.
“You keep bringing this topic up, which is a very important role that you are playing in Europe today.”
The Vilnius Russia Forum has been held since 2013. It is co-hosted by the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry and the Vilnius-based Eastern Europe Studies Centre thinktank.
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