Russian President Vladimir Putin can no longer claim victory in the war in Ukraine, Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of "Novaya Gazeta" and laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, said in an interview with the BBC, BTA reports.
What the Kremlin thought in 2022 would be a short but successful "military operation" has turned into one of the bloodiest conflicts in Europe since World War II. However, the self-confident President Putin continues to predict victory for Russia, the British media outlet points out.
"Victory will never happen, because the events that have been going on for five years, no matter how they end, will no longer be seen as a victory", says Muratov.
"Victory cannot be achieved when two Slavic peoples have torn a million or more people to pieces. For me, the situation in Ukraine is this - you can destroy it, but you cannot subdue it. What do I mean by destruction? This is the continuous escalation to the use of nuclear weapons,", the Russian journalist emphasized.
Muratov expressed concern about the possible use of nuclear weapons during the current conflict.
"Since the beginning of this year, the need to use nuclear weapons has been mentioned more than 500 times. If some crazy person says that, I won't pay attention to him, but the issue was discussed on television, and during the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, one of the participants highlighted the use of nuclear weapons as something positive, something good," Muratov pointed out.
The editor-in-chief of "Novaya Gazeta" also expressed the opinion that President Putin firmly retains control over power in Russia despite the results of sociological surveys, which report a decline in his approval rating.
"The country is ruled by Vladimir Putin. They (the political elite) are afraid of him, and this fear is reinforced by his main support - the Federal Security Service," Muratov pointed out.
Despite criticism of the Russian government, Dmitry Muratov presented Western leaders in a rather negative light.
"Putin knows very well the true value of European leaders. They talk to him about human rights, but the Russian president laughs out loud because they are signing or have signed agreements with Russia in the past for the trade of natural gas, oil, diamonds and many other things. When they talk to Putin about European values, he really bursts into laughter, because he knows the true value of the people who preached these values to him," the editor-in-chief of "Novaya Gazeta" pointed out.
Dmitry Muratov is one of the co-founders of "Novaya Gazeta" more than 30 years ago. The newspaper has become a symbol of uncompromising independent journalism in Russia, exposing cases of human rights violations and corruption at the highest levels of power, the BBC notes.