West too late with Russian sanctions, says exiled Russian oligarch

 An exiled oligarch said the West did not act quickly to stop Vladimir Putin's invasion.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a dissident and longtime Putin critic who was once Russia's richest man, accused Western governments of failing to act quickly to prevent them after they annexed Crimea in 2014. The outbreak of war.

"If they had imposed sanctions like they do now, if Ukrainians had gotten military weapons like they are now, there is a 100 percent chance that Putin would not start a war now.

“But what happened, happened,” Mr Khodorkovsky told The Independent.

"If a gangster comes to you, not just a London gangster, but a real gangster, and he slaps you, all you can do is give him your wallet and hope he doesn't rip your pants off .”

Russia was hit with economic sanctions after it occupied Crimea in February 2014, but Mr Khodorkovsky said the West had not gone far enough.

“Certainly a lot of responsibility. The annexation of Crimea in 2014. The people decided they could go ahead as usual.

"Putin sees this as a weakness. We have what we have."

However, he said tough sanctions on Russia would not be enough to stop the war.

"I don't think sanctions are a way to stop wars today. They will limit Putin's militaristic options, but not now - in the days to come," he said.

It comes after Britain, the United States, Canada and Japan announced a ban on imports of Russian gold, the latest phase of a crippling Russian economy in response to the war.

Gold exports to Russia, worth £12.6bn in 2021, have grown in importance since Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Downing Street said, as oligarchs scrambled to buy gold to avoid the impact of sanctions.