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'Putin will be gone soon': Exiled Russian dissident Ilya Ponomarev
[France24] Exiled Russian dissident Ilya Ponomarev gave an interview to FRANCE 24 from Kyiv. The former Russian lawmaker was the only member of the Douma to vote against the annexation of Crimea back in 2014 and now lives in Ukraine. He predicted that "Putin will be gone soon", arguing that the Russian president has "definitely lost the war" in Ukraine and that "no dictator who has lost a war can stay in power". Asked about the suspected war crimes in Bucha that have shocked the world, Ponomarev claimed that the killings were most likely the results of "panic" by retreating Russian forces, rather than carefully planned.Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian lawmaker-turned-opponent of Vladimir Putin, who has lived in Ukraine since 2016, told FRANCE 24 that Putin has already lost the war in Ukraine and that his days in power are numbered. Ponomarev, who was the only member of the Russian Douma to vote against the annexation of Crimea back in 2014 and who joined the Ukrainian territorial defence forces at the onset of the war, warned that the Russian president will attempt to obtain a military victory by trying to carve out a Russian-controlled area from Kharkiv to Odesa, which would include the Donbas region. Posted by: Besoeker 2022-04-07 |
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