Writer Vladimir Sorokin said he "underestimated the degree of insanity" of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The words of the writer are quoted by the Financial Times. Sorokin also called Putin "the great destroyer."

“He destroyed everything he touched,” Sorokin says.

According to him, we are talking not only about the free press and the "democratic parliament of Russia", but also about the economy and "even the army." “He claims to have raised Russia from its knees, but in reality he simply destroyed it,” the writer said.

Sorokin also quoted the artist Salvador Dali as saying that Hitler started World War II "not to win, as most people think, but to lose." “I think Putin is the same,” Sorokin said.

The Russians Sorokin called people "who have been turned into zombies by state television over the past 20 years." “Now they got into tanks and left to fight for a cause that only Putin can understand,” the writer said. “Smart people have had 20 years to understand who Putin is. They reveled in luxury. They traded their conscience for material well-being. And now they're reaping the rewards."

Sorokin believes that "the Russian state has not changed much since the Middle Ages, the time of Ivan the Terrible." Therefore, the writer argues, there is nothing surprising in "the barbarities that <Russia commits in Ukraine - The Insider> , these medieval methods of war."

In recent years, Sorokin lived between the Moscow region and Berlin, but after the outbreak of the war, he left Russia and is not going to return. “Of course, it will be difficult - I am connected with Russia not only at the language level,” the writer says.

“Naturally, culture will have to pay for this massacre. <But — The Insider> I think Russian culture will stand. This is already part of the world cultural heritage - it is difficult to do without it, ”concluded the writer.