Khodorkovsky announces Putin could “muddy the waters” in the Balkans

Russian opposition member Mikhail Khodorkovsky has suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin will try to destabilise the Balkans through Serbia.

Asked whether he would do this through Serbia, he replied “of course”.

Fortunately, the Russians are idiots. They tried it in Montenegro and pushed that country away from them, losing influence. But you cannot count on them always being idiots. After the sanctions, Russia’s influence has become less, for example in Germany. But the right-wing parties are Putin’s natural partners. He knows that. And since radical right voters usually support Putin, they do not lose support if Putin starts a war. This has to be carefully monitored, Khodorkovsky explained to the Viennese daily “Standard”.

He also pointed out that Russia also has a strong influence in Austria.

Given the number of professional sleeper assassins, it is much easier for Putin to kill someone in Austria than in any other European country, he explained.

That is why, he points out, Bulgarian journalist Hristo Grozev recently left Vienna for security reasons.

Putin’s influence in Austria is enormous, and this is also shown by the results of my Centre ‘dossier’, which investigates his illegal influence on other countries. I do not know how much Austria will want to return to the role it played during the Cold War, when Vienna was so to speak the centre of intelligence interaction. When it was a place to evade sanctions. With the current integration of Europe, I do not know how happy other countries would be if Austria took over this role, he stressed, reports Blic./Oslobobođenje.ba/