Founder of Gazeta Wyborcza: Russia chose the path of tyranny in the 2000s, Putin must lose
Vladimir Putin (Photo: ERA)

Russia is following the path of tyranny it chose in the 2000s..

Moscow must lose in a full-scale war against Ukraine, said Adam Michnik, a Polish public and political figure and founder of Gazeta Wyborcza, in an interview with LIGA.net

He believes that Russia is now ruled by fear and there is no spirit of "Great Russian nationalism" and the mood that was there during the annexation of Crimea in 2014 – only "money and fear." In the 2000s, the country had a choice: to go towards Europe or towards tyranny. And it chose the second path .

"We went in the direction of tyranny. Now we are reaping the benefits. It shouldn't have been like this, but it happened. It's a pity, because it seemed that during Gorbachev's "perestroika" this people had a chance. But the need for empire turned out to be stronger among the elites than the need for freedom," he said .

In his opinion, the full-scale war was a turning point in history. The Russian dictator Vladimir Putin decided to "strike with his fist" and show "who is the boss". But he "packed" Russia into a terrible catastrophe.

Mikhnik believes that from a historical perspective, for Putin, the attack on Ukraine was the same as the attack on Afghanistan for Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev.

"This is the end of Russian imperial thinking. Putin must lose".

In addition, if Putin has a chance to seize something in two or three days, he will attack. But it is not a given that he will get such a chance .

"Thanks to the Ukrainian resistance, Europe realized that it needs to change its philosophy on military affairs and weapons. The Ukrainians were wiser than we Poles because they created an army that was able to resist Putin's aggression," Michnik said .

warPolandVolodymyr Putin