Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said in an interview with Bloomberg that Vladimir Putin may have problems staying in power in Russia if he loses the war in Ukraine.

“I would like Russia to recognize that its relations with Europe must be based on understanding and some kind of consensus, and I think that this war, if properly concluded, can make that possible,” he said.

When asked whether Putin would be able to stay in power if the war ended under such conditions, Kissinger simply replied that “it is unlikely.”

The 100-year-old veteran diplomat stressed that it was important for Ukraine to emerge from the war as a strong democracy and that it would be better if the end of the conflict started by Putin avoids “the disintegration of Russia or the reduction of Russia to outraged impotence”, which could lead to renewed tensions in response .

Kissinger described Putin, who he met several times in the Kremlin after becoming president, as a “Dostoevsky-type character, tormented by ambivalence and unfulfilled aspirations”, saying that the Russian president was very capable of wielding power as a leader and that he used it. “excessive” in relation to Ukraine.

Henry Kissinger considers the possible arrest of Putin a mistake

The former US secretary of state has made several controversial statements since the start of the war in Ukraine last year, most recently saying that the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for the Russian president was a mistake.

“Put before the court? It’s better not!”, he said in an interview with Die Zeit journalists a few days before his 100th birthday on May 27. He justified his position by the fact that “it is impossible or much more difficult to end the war if the outcome of the war is connected with the personal fate of the political leader.”

He also said that he did not think that “Putin was to blame” for the outbreak of the war, but that he had changed his mind about Ukraine’s admission to NATO. Kissinger recalled that in 2014, after the illegal annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of the separatist conflict in Donbas, he believed that “Ukraine should have remained neutral, having a status similar to Finland.”

However, he now claims that he has changed his mind and is in favor of Ukraine joining the military alliance after the end of the war.

“Today I am absolutely in favor of Ukraine joining NATO. Now, when there are no more neutral zones between NATO and Russia, it is better for the West to accept Ukraine into NATO,” he explained.

Last spring, Kissinger came under fierce attack from President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and other Ukrainian officials after he offered Ukraine to cede territory in exchange for peace with Russia. He later retracted these statements.

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