Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Mike McFaul on Monday weighed in on the possibility of a coup from Russia’s military leaders and those closest to Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to the ramped-up aggression toward Ukraine.
McFaul told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Putin has been “isolated forever” and “doesn’t have people around him that he listens to.” He advised that for the first time ever with Putin leading Russia, people are hoping there would be a coup to stop him and remove him from power.
“I can tell you that in the last, you know, seven days — because I talk to Russians every single day, I talk to Ukrainians every single day. I was just corresponding with one, you know, right before we got on here who is close to Mr. Zelensky about just how they are standing firm,” McFaul outlined. “And the fact that he’s standing firm, Zelensky is not leaving Kyiv, is driving Putin nuts because the whole world is talking about his heroism, and the whole world is talking about how evil Vladimir Putin is.”
“[H]e doesn’t have people around him that he listens to,” he continued. “He’s been isolated forever. He was isolated when I was ambassador eight years ago. He would not listen to anybody. He sat out at his compound outside of town, rarely came to work, does not have a feel for his own country, and that was all OK as long as everybody’s making money, sending their kids abroad, you know, cracking down on the opposition — everybody was fine. But now it’s the elite that has benefited from Putin’s regime that has now turned on him because they never thought that he was going to do this, right? They never thought he would be so crazy as to do this kind of attack. And they are all in shock — by the way, not without reason.”
McFaul concluded, “A lot of Ukrainians, a lot of Americans didn’t think he would do this. And so, that is happening now, but the problem is they do not have mechanisms to turn their discontent into stopping him. But I can tell you there are people now, you know, just discussing, that talk about for the first time ever since Putin’s been in power for 22 years that hopefully there will be a coup. Hopefully, they’ll stop him before it’s too late. I’m not predicting that. I want to be crystal clear about that. I think that’s a low probability event, but the fact that is being discussed — that is something new. He’s lost this country, including the people that are closest to him.”
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