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Andrey Kortunov sits on a panel of foreign policy experts that advises the Kremlin.
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Kortunov told Sky News he can’t understand Putin’s logic for invading Ukraine.
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Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Thursday and are fighting to seize Kyiv and other major cities.
An advisor to the Kremlin says he was caught off guard by President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and can’t understand his reasoning.
“I was shocked because for a long time, I thought that a military operation was not feasible. It was not plausible,” Andrey Kortunov, who sits on a Kremlin panel of foreign policy experts, told Sky News.
Kortunov said he and other pro-development Kremlin advisors have been sidelined while Putin, who reads the panel’s recommendations, surrounds himself only with a group of military officials known as the siloviki.
Putin has struck an increasingly bellicose and manic tone in his statements on Ukraine, and Kortunov said his actions are hard to predict due to his single-mindedness.
“I do not understand the logic he currently has, his own rationale that justifies the actions that he made,” Kortunov told Sky News. “It’s hard for me to get into his thinking, what he really thought when he made this decision.”
The New York Times reported Sunday that US intelligence agencies were urgently debating the possibility that Putin had lost touch with reality. However, the US currently has no intelligence proving that he is mentally unstable, four US officials told NBC News.
Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Putin was becoming “increasingly unhinged.”
Russian troops began their invasion of Ukraine on Thursday and are fighting to seize Kyiv, the capital, and several other cities.
Kortunov said Western powers should now involve themselves in talks between Russia and Ukraine to prevent further escalation of the conflict.
“My advice today, given the current situation on the ground, would be to turn a ceasefire into the top priority. We have to stop the conflict,” he said.
Talks held Monday at the Belarus border between Russian and Ukrainian officials did not result in a ceasefire, with Russia demanding Ukraine stay neutral and not join NATO.
“We have to get to the negotiating table not just with Ukraine, but also with the West,” Kortunov told Sky News.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “It’s important to stop bombing people and then we can move on and sit at the negotiation table.”
Kortunov went on to say there will likely be people inside the Kremlin who oppose the invasion and know the likely cost.
“I think that there are many people in the Kremlin who should be depressed because the price will be substantial and of course, you know, we should be depressed also because people are being killed,” he said.
“I’m depressed,” he said. “I think many of us are depressed.”
Kortunov joins a list of prominent Russians close to Putin who have in recent days spoken out against the war.
A number of Russian billionaires have been hit by sanctions imposed by the US, UK, and EU following the invasion. Businessmen including Mikhail Fridman, who was targeted by EU sanctions, and Evgeny Lebedev have called for an end to the war.
Ukrainian lawmakers previously told Insider that targeting the lives of those closest to Putin could help stop the war.
“Let them come to Putin and say, ‘What the hell,'” Kira Rudik, the leader of Ukraine’s Holos party, said.
Read the original article on Business Insider
