Russia could be like ‘North Korea on steroids’ when Putin is changed, previous Kremlin advisor suggests

Economist and previous Kremlin advisor Sergei Guriev on Friday warned that Russia could turn into like “North Korea on steroids” when President Vladimir Putin is replaced, indicating the current political program would likely collapse when a new leader will take the reins.

His reviews arrive forward of the funeral of the Soviet Union’s last leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Saturday.

Putin, who paid out his respects to Gorbachev at the Moscow healthcare facility the place the 91-calendar year-outdated died on Tuesday, will not show up at the company.

Putin is acknowledged to have had a strained relationship with Gorbachev, who ushered in sweeping reforms that in the end led to the slide of the Soviet Union.

Speaking to CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick at the Ambrosetti Discussion board in Italy, Guriev mentioned it was extremely tricky to forecast what may transpire when Putin is ultimately changed as president.

“Regimes like this adjust in incredibly unpredictable ways,” Guriev reported. “It is incredibly tricky to forecast what will arrive right after Putin. The rationale for that is Putin has built his routine in a way nobody can swap him.”

“He created the routine in a way that devoid of him, the program will not operate. People today close to him you should not trust each other, from time to time despise every single other, so if he is long gone the method will improve someway,” he stated.

“So, probably at first it will be some variety of extremely-nationalist dude or navy junta, but it will not last for long specifically simply because the process is built close to Putin. And sooner or later, I feel the process will collapse,” Guriev reported.

“It could be months, it could be quite a few a long time, it could be North Korea on steroids, who knows? But it could also be a scenario the place the procedure collapses and somebody who would like to rebuild the economic climate reaches out to the West,” he added.

The Russian Embassy in London and Russia’s Foreign Ministry have been not immediately accessible to remark when contacted by CNBC on Friday.