Exiled Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky said in Berlin on Thursday that he does not expect anyone worse than President Vladimir Putin to succeed him.

“Everything that can be made worse, Putin will do,” the former oil tycoon said, adding that Putin would escalate if it served his interests.

Khodorkovsky was sceptical that the Ukraine war and the wider conflict between Russia and Europe would end while Putin remained in power.

“Will Putin die in office? Very likely,” he said of the 74-year-old Russian president. He said that at best it might be possible to freeze the war and achieve a limited de-escalation.

Any potential successor would first have to consolidate power in Russia, he said.

Speaking to journalists at the Centre for Liberal Modernity think tank, Khodorkovsky said that Putin has likely exhausted his options for escalation against Europe.

After Putin, he predicted, institutions such as the Security Council, parliament and Russia’s regions would regain influence. This would not amount to Western-style democratization, he said, but life would become noticeably easier for Russians.

Khodorkovsky, 63, was one of Russia’s wealthiest men as head of the oil company Yukos. When he began criticizing Putin, he was arrested in 2003 and was released from prison 10 years later.

Now living in exile, he is a prominent voice in Russia’s fragmented opposition.

The original text by DPA International was published first here