“The Putin I knew was different,” says Mikhail Kassianov, former Russian Prime Minister…

7:43 am: A former Russian Prime Minister says he no longer recognizes Putin

Mikhail Kassianov was the first head of government of the current master of the Kremlin. “The Putin I knew was different,” he said during a rare interview, by videoconference, with AFP. Prime Minister from 2000 to 2004 before moving to the opposition, he estimates that the war could last up to two years, but still believes that Russia will resume a “democratic path” one day.

Aged 64, the one who worked for the rapprochement between Moscow and Western countries, also explains that he did not think, like many Russians, that a war would break out. “I know these people and looking at them I saw that Putin was not himself. Not medically, but politically.”