- Kasyanov was Putin’s former PM.
- The former PM believed that war could last two years.
- Kasyanov is the People’s Freedom Party’s leader.
He was Vladimir Putin’s first prime minister, but Mikhail Kasyanov never dreamed that his former boss would launch a full-scale war against Ukraine.
Kasyanov, Russia’s prime minister from 2000 to 2004, told France news agency in a video interview that he believed the war could last up to two years, but that he was confident Russia could return to a democratic path.
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As prime minister, the 64-year-old advocated for close ties with the West, but he, like many other Russians in the weeks preceding the war, did not believe it would actually occur.
Kasyanov only realized that Putin was not bluffing when he saw him convene a sham meeting of the country’s security council three days prior to the invasion on February 24.
“When I saw the meeting of Russia’s Security Council I realized, yes, there will be a war,” Kasyanov said.
He added that he felt that Putin was already not thinking properly.
“I just know these people and by looking at them I saw that Putin is already out of it. Not in a medical sense but in political terms,” he said.
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“I knew a different Putin.”
Kasyanov joined Russia’s opposition after being dismissed by Putin and became one of the Kremlin’s most vociferous critics.
He is presently the leader of the People’s Freedom Party, or Parnas, the opposition party.
