Unsettling claims Vladimir Putin has ‘gone mad with power’

Vladimir Putin has “gone mad with power” according to one of his key opponents, who claims revolution is the only way to avoid a new World War.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has “gone mad with power” according to one of his key political opponents, who claims a third world war will remain a possibility for as long as the dictatorial leader rules Russia.

Opposition politician Ilya Yashin sounded the warning this week from his cell in a Russian jail known as the Bear, where he is imprisoned for accusing the Russian army of conducting a massacre.

“As long as Putin retains power, war, or at least the threat of war, will be permanent,” Yashin wrote in a letter to The Guardian.

“This man has gone mad from unlimited power and impunity, he has become a slave to his maniacal ambitions.”

Vladimir Putin is a ‘slave to his ambitions’ according to Yashin. Picture: Mikhail Metzel / Sputnik/ AFP

Removing Putin from power, he wrote, was a prerequisite to “avoiding the risks of a new world war”.

Putin suffered a flesh blow this week when a group of pro-Ukraine Russians “invaded their own land” and called for an uprising against the warmongering leader.

The Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), a group comprising Russian émigrés including several notorious far-right figures, claimed responsibility for the border crossing, which Putin called a “terrorist attack”.

The Russian President claimed in a press conference that the group deliberately shot at civilians and said “measures (were) being taken to eliminate them”.

Ukraine, meanwhile, called the situation a “false flag” staged by Russia to justify yet more violence.

Yashin laying flowers for fellow Putin opponent Boris Nemtsov, who was fatally shot in 2015. Picture: Vasily Maximov / AFP

Now, Yashin says Russian “society has also become a victim of Putin”.

The 39-year-old was jailed last year after he accused the Russian army of conducting a massacre against civilians in Bucha, in a broadcast on his popular YouTube channel.

Though he was sentenced to eight and a half years, he admits it is unclear when he will be released.

“Obviously, I will have a chance to get out of prison if the government changes in Russia,” he said. But this is “not a question of today or tomorrow. It is clear that Putin’s goodwill cannot be counted on. He hates people who have publicly opposed military aggression in Ukraine and considers them enemies.”

Civilian bodies lay in the streets of Bucha, where Yashin accused the Russian military of conducting a massacre. Picture: Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP.

Russia has detained almost 20,000 people for peaceful protest and anti-war sentiment since its invasion of Ukraine, including more than 15,000 detentions in its first month. More than a quarter of their cases involve prosecutions for “fake news” articles.

Yashin refused to emigrate despite the risk, believing it was important to represent a stronghold of anti-war Russians.

“From the first day of the fighting, I understood that an anti-war voice should be speaking in Russia. It should speak as loudly as possible under the circumstances,” he wrote.

“Putin has done everything to silence the opponents of the attack on Ukraine. He intimidated Russians, he established military censorship, forced his critics abroad under threat of arrest. The Kremlin did its best to create the illusion of mass, total support for military aggression in Russian society. And I live here and I know that there is no total support, that many are against the war.”