TYRANT Vladimir Putin has chosen UK as its number one enemy and is ready to attack, an exiled Russian oil tycoon has warned.

Russia has ramped up its campaign of hybrid warfare and targeted assassinations across Europe since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Prominent Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky told The Sun the West must not underestimate the Kremlin leader who is “100 per cent likely” to strike Britain “with any available means”.

Khodorkovsky, an exiled Russian businessman who spent 10 years in a Siberian prison after clashes with Putin, has emerged as a leading figure in opposition circles operating outside of Russia.

In an interview from his London office, he told The Sun: “Putin is a gangster, and he perceives someone else’s weakness as an invitation to attack them.

“Today, for Putin, Europe is a weak opponent.”

And Russia has “chosen” the UK as its “main enemy” , marking it up as the “force that stands behind everything that opposes Russia“.

Putin’s war in Ukraine has ground down its armed forces – leaving a direct military attack on Europe almost impossible.

Khodorkovsky said: “Putin doesn’t have the right force for a proper attack against the United Kingdom. He doesn’t actually have enough military might left to attack the West today.

“He [Putin] also knows that the European army is very weak.

“Without Americans it wouldn’t be able to defeat Russia. And he sees that the American army is not going to be waging campaigns against Putin on behalf of Europe.”

The UK’s defence spending is dwarfed in comparison to the cash that the Kremlin has pumped into its military machine.

Khodorkovsky said: “From this point of view, today, Europe is a temptation for Putin. A temptation, of course, not for a brutal attack but for a hybrid attack. Europe is undoubtedly a target.”

Just this week Russia’s interior ministry announced a manhunt for former British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, flagging his picture on a wanted list.

Moscow’s Basmanny district court sentenced Sir Ben in absentia on charges of “justifying terrorism”, but the grounds of the charge remain unclear.

The UK foreign office told The Sun: “The accusations made today by Russia are completely unacceptable. The UK does not stand for intimidation of its citizens.” 

While the reeling dictator’s actions are increasingly volatile, Khodorkovsky says there are ways to predict how he will attack.

He said: “The standard way Putin operates is to find internal conflicts that he can inflate, and he will use any available means to do that.”

Khodorkovsky set out Putin’s three options for an attack on the UK.

And he warned that covert activities are already underway within Britain’s borders.

He said: “The first tool is to use special forces called the GRU – an expensive and very dangerous force.

“In the UK, their operations have been 50 per cent successful – they managed to kill Litvinenko but they were not successful in Salisbury.”

Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian FSB officer turned British intelligence agent, was murdered in London in November 2006 using rare radioactive polonium-210.

A 2016 UK inquiry concluded the poisoning was “probably approved” by Vladimir Putin, with the European Court of Human Rights later holding Russia responsible.

Two years later, three GRU agents applied novichok to the front door handle of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, south-west England.

Skripal and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, were poisoned by the military grade nerve agent but survived the assassination attempt. An innocent British citizen, Dawn Sturgess, died.

Following an inquiry, former Supreme Court judge Lord Hughes concluded that the deadly plot “must have been authorised at the highest level, by President Putin“.

Despite Russia’s partial failure in the UK, their assassinations targets in other European countries like Germany “have all been successfully killed”, Khodorkovsky said.

Putin’s second option for an attack in the UK is “already being prepared”.

Khodorkovsky said: “It is the system of agents including foreign intelligence agents, the FSB. They will be used if there were an attack.”

This system has been seriously weakened after the UK extradited swathes of Kremlin agents following the Salisbury poisoning and Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

But there is a third option, using British criminals to outsource Russian attacks via social media, Khodorkovsky said.

He said: “This is the cheapest and weakest option, but it can be quite successful.”

The method has been used in the UK and is “still in use”, Khodorkovsky warned.

It comes after five British men were convicted for their roles in a firebomb attack on a warehouse in Leyton, east London in 2025, used to ship humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

The men acted on behalf of the Wagner Group – a proscribed terrorist organisation with links to Russian military intelligence.

About £1million worth of damage was caused in the March 2023 blaze, which was live-streamed by one of the attackers.

The plot also included plans to firebomb a Mayfair restaurant and kidnap its owner – Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin – in a campaign orchestrated online through encrypted Telegram chats.

The ringleaders, Dylan Earl and Jake Reeves, admitted to acting on behalf of the Wagner Group and became the first people convicted under the UK’s new National Security Act 2023.

Prosecutors said the case illustrated how Moscow was willing to exploit the UK’s openness for strategic gain.

Khodorkovsky warned that the UK must prepare for further attacks.

He laughed off recent intelligence suggesting a coup from Russia’s elite could oust Putin from power as “an absolutely humorous statement that has nothing to do with reality”.

It comes as Putin was forced to scale back his flagship Victory Day parade on Moscow’s red square earlier this month over fears of a Ukrainian attack.

Following the humiliating climb-down, the Russian tyrant hinted his war with Ukraine was “coming to a close”.

But he rallied against Western elites for disregarding Moscow’s interests and for mistakenly expecting Russia’s collapse.

Khodorkovsky said: “I think that unfortunately it is more likely that Putin will stay in power for five, seven or even 10 years. All these years will be in a state of cold war and the main goal is to prevent it from becoming hot war.”

To do that the UK must boost its defences and show its strength against Russia.

He said: “I am absolutely convinced that in today’s world no country can afford to look defenceless.”

The interview by Claudia Lee, Foreign News Reporter, was first published in The Sun