10.01.2025

The head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, is a priori not ready for peace talks with Ukraine, as he wants to continue the war. His main goal was and remains unchanged – complete political control over our state, and better – over all of Eastern Europe. However, the operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kursk in Russia showed that the regime of the Kremlin dictator is fragile, and any “black swan” can lead to its end.

His first presidential term began with the Kursk submarine disaster, and it would be wonderful if the events in Kursk had buried this regime. After all, for the first time since World War II, war had come to Russia. And Putin himself had brought it.

This opinion was expressed by Russian oppositionist Olga Kurnosova in an exclusive interview with OBOZ.UA.

– Retired British Army Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon said that Putin’s failure to push the Ukrainian Armed Forces out of the Kursk region by the deadline looks like a blow to Putin’s dictatorship. In his opinion, Kursk could be the beginning of the end for Putin in 2025, as it was for Hitler in 1943. Do you agree with these assessments? If part of the Kursk region remains under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, will this lead to big problems for Putin’s regime in Russia?

– This is already a problem for Putin personally and for his regime as a whole. But we must understand that Putin’s fall, unfortunately, is not as close as we would like. Although in principle the regime is quite fragile, and any “black swan” event could lead to its quick end.

– As I understand it, the events in Kursk are not making the front pages of the central and metropolitan Russian media?

– Yes, yes, in Russia they are trying not to talk about it at all, not to mention it. Khinshtein was put in charge – well, enough (from December 5, 2024, the position of temporary acting governor of the Kursk region will be held by Alexander Khinshtein. – Ed.).

– On YouTube, you can see appeals from residents of the Kursk region to Moscow and to Putin personally. Perhaps they also go without much attention?

– Putin doesn’t give a damn about anyone except himself, his close friends, and maybe his relatives, that’s all. We remember how his presidency began with the death of submariners on the Kursk submarine – also Kursk. So I would like this Kursk to finally bury him.

– If we talk about the formal side of the issue, then due to the operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region, Russia lost its territorial integrity, right?

– If we take the formal side of the issue, the inviolability of Russia’s borders was closely related to the inviolability of Ukraine’s borders, because all these borders were formed at the time of signing the Belavezha Accords. And in a legal sense, they have the same weight – both the borders of Russia and the borders of Ukraine. Therefore, Putin violated his own borders, the borders of Russia, exactly at the moment when he crossed the border of Ukraine with regular troops on February 24, 2022.

But Putin is a kind of “reader”, someone who treats legal issues formally. Despite the fact that he graduated from law school, he does not distinguish between natural law and law. He tries to deceive and cheat everyone with formal tricks. This is where all his wild, from the point of view of a normal person, things come from.

So there’s nothing to be surprised about here. The way he behaves, unfortunately, is not surprising.

After all, the issue is not only that Russia does not control part of the territory of the Kursk region. The issue is much broader – that drones fly quite far, almost to the Volga. That is, there is no airspace protection whatsoever.

By the way, more on the formalities. Putin hoped that if he called the war a “special military operation,” it would cease to be a war. But no, it does not cease to be a war because of that. Yes, of course, at first he hoped that all his military operations would be conducted exclusively on the territory of Ukraine, but now they are also taking place on Russian territory. In fact, for the first time since 1945, war has come to Russian soil. But who brought it there? Putin.

– Political expert Taras Zagorodny said that the Biden administration did not set itself the goal of overthrowing the Putin regime in Russia, and did not rule out that the Trump administration could set such a task. One option is to formulate the issue of removing Putin before the Russian elites. How bold is this assumption?

– If we talk about how exactly you can win, then you can only win by removing Putin from power. I have been saying this for a long time: the only way to normalize the situation is to free Putin from the burden of the post of President of the Russian Federation.

And how exactly to do it… Something will happen to him, the Russian elites will dismiss him or something else – that’s a separate question. But I believe that this is the only possible way. And the White House administration will have to make this difficult political decision: without what is called regime change, the situation will not improve.

– The last clarification is regarding Putin’s ultimatums. He has already indirectly reacted to the option of a peaceful settlement of the war in Ukraine proposed by Trump. Do you assume that all these ultimatums will be nullified at the very moment when negotiations begin with the participation of Trump or another representative of the White House?

– I don’t think so. Because, in my opinion, Putin doesn’t want the war to end. His main political goal has always been to establish control over at least Ukraine, and better over all of Eastern Europe. Not four Ukrainian regions plus Crimea. No, no. The main thing for him has always been political control over Ukraine. And he will not accept anything less.

Therefore, it is not worth thinking that something can be agreed with Putin, that there is some kind of compromise. No. You cannot agree with him, he has no compromises. All those ultimatums and the rather impudent behavior that he has been demonstrating recently are just confirmation of that.

Taras Zagorodny is right, and I also keep saying this, that the only way to stop the war is to rid not only Russia, but the world of Putin as the president of the Russian Federation. There are no other ways.

https://news.obozrevatel.com/ukr/russia/rezhim-putina-krihkij-chi-mozhe-kursk-pohovati-jogo-intervyu-z-rosijskoyu-opozitsionerkoyu-kurnosovoyu.htm