Former Russian oligarch warns Europe: Don't negotiate with Putin, he's a bandit.

European leaders need to avoid the mistake of negotiating the war with Vladimir Putin in Ukraine because “ai is not a statesman, but a gangster”.

This is the harsh warning of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the exiled businessman who was once considered the richest man in Russia and today is a leading critic of the country's president.

Since the Kremlin began its full invasion of Ukraine, some leaders, particularly France's President Emmanuel Macron, have engaged in phone calls with Putin in an effort to change his mind, but to no avail.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and European Council President Charles Michel have all kept unsuccessful calls with their Russian counterpart.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer even traveled to Moscow to meet Putin personally.
This diplomatic campaign has been sharply criticised by Ukrainian President Volodyr Zelensky, as well as Poland and the Baltic states, which consider calls a form of calm with a war criminal suspect.

In an interview with Euronews, Mikhail Khodorkovsky said: “leaders of large European countries still believe they can negotiate something with Putin without demonstrating their strength and that they can talk to him from what he perceives as a weak position.

And this is a dramatic mistake, because he's not a statesman like them are just a bandit. And what does a bandit do in this kind of situation when he considers himself strong and when he's driven to take a step towards them? He tries to put an end to his victim. ”