During the interview, Gudkov talked about:
- mobilization announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin;
- Putin’s nuclear blackmail;
- a possible Western response to Russia’s use of nuclear weapons;
- pseudo-referenda held by the occupiers in the occupied Ukrainian territories;
- Belarus and Alexander Lukashenko, who considers himself president of the country;
- relations between Putin and Lukashenko.
“Lukashenko is a fool, but not an idiot. He understands that Putin is a fool” the politician said during an interview.
Gudkov was born in 1956 in Kolomna, in the Moscow region. He graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the Kolomna State Pedagogical Institute (specialty- “English teacher”), later – the counterintelligence school and the red flag named after Yu.V. Andropov Institute of the KGB of the USSR.
From 1982 to 1993 he worked in the state security agencies of the USSR and Russia. In 1992, even before his dismissal from military service, he founded his own security company, Oskord, where former special services and law enforcement employees worked.
In 1997-2001, Gudkov was a member of the advisory board under the director of the FSB, which included the heads of private security companies.
Gudkov in 2001-2012 was a deputy of the State Duma of Russia (first from the “People’s Party”, then from “Fair Russia”). In 2012, Gudkov was charged with illegal business activities and money laundering abroad and was deprived of his parliamentary mandate.
Gudkov now lives in Bulgaria. He criticizes the Russian leadership and participates in opposition actions abroad. In 2021, a criminal case was initiated against Gudkov because of the cartridges found in his Moscow apartment. The politician himself claimed that these are cartridges of his prize gun.
Gudkov’s son, Dmitry Gudkov, is also involved in politics, he was a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.
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