Mikhail Khodorkovsky: "Putin does not think strategically"

On his own political future, Khodorkovsky stated: "I was and still am a person who is capable of influencing developments in Russia."

Two years after his release from a ten-year imprisonment, the former CEO of oil company Yukos told DW's Zhanna Nemzowa what he thinks of Putin's governing style: "The main problem of the government that Putin has built is that it lacks every form of legitimacy. There's just Putin, and his performance in the polls. The entire army of civil servants takes its orientation from two aspects. The first is what Putin says. The second is their own pocket."

With regard to Russian foreign relations, Mikhail Khodorkovsky said Putin was not "someone who thinks strategically. Putin always makes the decision that will give him the most room to manoeuvre in the step ahead. He almost never varies from this algorithm."