Russia may change after regime of Putin is overthrown - Andrey Zubov

“Putin’s regime today is aggressive, terribly aggressive actually, and even approaches the level of Nazis’ regime to a certain extent. But I am sure that if we, Russians, managed to change the regime, Russia would have also changed, it would have changed its foreign and domestic policy. And the war and the aggression would cease to be the pillar of Russian policy”, Andrey Zubov, a Russian historian, and political scientist stated at 10^th Kyiv Security Forum held by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Foundation Open Ukraine.

The scholar began his speech at the Forum with an apology to Ukrainians. “I am very sorry for my country having done so much harm to the people of Ukraine. I personally apologize for that”, Andrey Zubov said, mentioning that he was a member of the Russian opposition party PARNAS.

The expert believes that the situation in his country can change, as “there exist aggressive regimes but there is no such thing as an aggressive nation”.

Andrey Zubov drew parallels between modern Russia and Germany in the past. He recalled that in early 20^th century, Germany was considered the aggressor, the cause of constant wars in Europe, and there even were suggestions to divide the country. But now Germany has become the center of stability in Europe. “Germany has ceased to be the center of aggression and became the center of peace. The same is possible with Russia”, the expert stressed.

“Once it was impossible to imagine that Germany would have good relations with Poland or France, but they exist now. I hope that similarly, Russia will have such good relations with the neighboring countries”, he added.

According to Andrey Zubov, Russia needs to achieve two goals – the decommunization and the “deputinization”. “And these two objectives are interrelated, interdependent because Putin is a continuation of communistic, aggressive totalitarian mentality, he is from the KGB, and the KGB was the main basis of the totalitarian regime, even bigger than the Communist party itself was”, the expert concluded.

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Kyiv Security Forum was launched by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Foundation Open Ukraine in 2007 is an annual international event to high-level discussions on the current issues in the Black Sea region and wider Europe. The Forum aims at increasing security cooperation between the EU and the Black Sea region, raising awareness about regional developments among key regional players, promoting the role of independent and non-governmental actors in setting the security agenda in Europe.