From the Liveblog of
Friday, March 25, 2022
Oligarch who gave up Russian citizenship calls Putin a ‘psychopath’
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Russian-Israeli businessman Leonid Nevzlin, who earlier his month announced that he was giving up his Russian citizenship, calls President Vladimir Putin a “psychopath” during a Channel 12 interview.
Nevzlin, who knew Putin before he left the former Soviet Union, says he is embarrassed to be a Russian citizen as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine carries on.
He calls for the world to maintain an aggressive stance against Putin, who he says currently feels like a “cornered rat.”
Nevzlin cites a biography of Putin in which he is quoted as saying about himself: “Don’t push the rat into a corner, it is likely to attack and bite.”
“You ask, how is that relevant? Because he feels like a cornered rat. And why? Because he is a psychopath. He pushed himself into the corner,” Nevzlin says.
Nevzlin says Putin has a serious inferiority complex, suggesting that it is because he is short. “I apologize, I don’t want to offend anybody but I see a lot of these ‘Napoleons’ in life.”
Nonetheless, Nevzlin says that Putin is still rational and wants to live. “He’s just not smart.”
“Putin is without a doubt a war criminal,” Nevzlin adds. “His craziness won’t hide that.”
He praises Israel’s efforts to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, and says Israel has a real “advantage” because of its international standing.
A longtime critic of Putin, Nevzlin was the most high-profile of the oil executive associates of Mikhail Khodorkovsky who fled Russian arrest warrants in 2003. Khodorkovsky, the onetime head of the Yukos oil giant, was jailed for several years after clashing with Putin.
Nevzlin was found guilty, in absentia, on several counts of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to life behind bars. In 2014, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in favor of Nevzlin, accusing Moscow of carrying out “a ruthless campaign to destroy [him] and to expropriate [his] assets.”
In the years since, Nevzlin has established himself as an influential businessman and philanthropist. He was president of the Russian Jewish Congress, became chairman of the board of trustees at Beit Hatfutsot — the Museum of the Jewish People — and is a member of several bodies of the Jewish Agency, the Jewish National Fund, Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University. He also owns 25% of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
His daughter Irina is married to Yuli Edelstein, a top politician in the Likud party and a former political prisoner in the Soviet Union.
The Times of Israel Community.