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| President Vladimir Putin has "evil in his heart" according to former treasurer Joe Hockey. Picture: Getty |
Aktual News - Former US ambassador Joe Hockey says Vladimir Putin's fear of losing power is the “only thing” that can stop his brutal invasion of Ukraine - not the blocking of influential Russian oligarchs.
President Putin has continued to encroach further into Ukraine, while the west attempts to stop the attacks by battering Russian banks and high-ranking individuals with sanctions.
Mr Hockey said the “python squeeze” was being applied on Mr Putin and Russian billionaires, but dismissed the influence that Moscow’s oligarchs have on the President.
“I think it’s really important that we understand that those oligarchs and billionaires are oligarchs and billionaires because of Vladimir Putin,” Mr Hockey told Sky News Australia’s Laura Jayes.
“In Russia they all owe everything to Vladimir Putin so they’ve got no capacity in my view to really pull him in.”
Former Australian ambassador to the United States, Joe Hockey, says only the fear of losing power can bring Vladimir Putin back from his brutal invasion of Ukraine. Picture: Getty
Former Australian ambassador to the United States, Joe Hockey, says only the fear of losing power can bring Vladimir Putin back from his brutal invasion of Ukraine. Picture: Getty
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| Former Australian ambassador to the United States, Joe Hockey, says only the fear of losing power can bring Vladimir Putin back from his brutal invasion of Ukraine. |
The former Australian Treasurer continued to say that the fear of a “people’s revolution” might be the only thing to drive him away from war with Ukraine.
“The only thing that will pull him in is if he starts to fear losing power in Russia which inevitably has to be fuelled by some sort of people’s revolution there,” Mr Hockey said.
“The increase in casualties amongst the Russian army going into Ukraine is going to be felt back home.
“And the message will start to go to the mothers of Russia that their children are being sacrificed on the altar of Putin’s hubris, his arrogance, his conceited nature.”
Mr Hockey, who hosted the President at the G20 summit in 2014, also said Mr Putin had ambitions for empire as Russian forces begin to encircle Ukraine’s capital.
“He’s got evil in his heart… he sees himself as a tsar of Russia,” Mr Hockey added.
“Unfortunately, all of these people think that in order to be defined by history as a great leader you need to increase the size of your boundaries you need to grow the empire.
“He is so full of hubris that he thinks that’s the solution for modern day Russia whereas it’s quite the contrary.
“If he could invest and lift living standards for everyday Russians he would be lauded as a great president but unfortunately his priorities are elsewhere.”