The Russian Interior Ministry today announced a search and arrest warrant for Abbas Galliamov, a political scientist and former speechwriter for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Galliamov – who is in exile in Israel and who was deemed a “foreign agent” by Russia’s Justice Ministry in February – is thus on the Interior Ministry’s blacklist, charged in an unspecified criminal case, according to the Tass desk.
The 50-year-old political scientist worked for the Russian president between 2008 and 2010 and left public service after the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
Galliamov was placed on this list by the Ministry of the Interior a day after the publication of an interview with Radio Free Europe, in which he spoke about his work as a speechwriter for Putin.
In the interview, Galliamov explains how Putin has evolved from a logical person, who did not feel threatened by the Russian opposition or NATO, to an irrational person “very concerned about revealing strength”.
“No one could have foreseen that Russia would become some kind of fascist state,” the political scientist admitted.
Galliamov said he was deeply disappointed by Putin’s recent state-of-the-nation speech in which he attempted to “normalize the war,” affirming that he would hold presidential elections in 2024 and likely run again.
He predicts that Putin will nominate Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister in the coming months, blaming the latter for the more than likely defeat on the Ukrainian battlefield.
“He doesn’t want to take responsibility for the defeat. He’s a strong man. For him, being responsible for the defeats is the worst thing imaginable. He wants to make sure he’s not guilty of it (the defeat), at least in his own eyes, in the eyes of his friends,” Galliamov concluded.
Source: DN
