Russian actress and poet Vera Polozkova brands Putin the ‘main maniac of 21st century’

Speaking from exile, Ms Polozkova said Russia ‘now exists as a totalitarian sect’

Russian president Vladimir Putin has been branded the “main maniac of the 21st century” by a leading Russian actress as his war on Ukraine enters its tenth month.

Vera Polozkova, 36, expressed her feeling of “crazy pain and shame” over Russia’s self-styled special military operation in Ukraine, and urged her fellow citizens to prepare to acknowledge, repent and atone for Moscow’s “crimes”.

Ms Polozkova made her remarks during an interview with popular Russian journalist and YouTuber Yury Dud, known for his interviews with a series of critics of Mr Putin’s brutal attacks on Ukraine.

Vera Polozkova says Russia is ‘going full steam into a very unpleasant future’ (YouTube/ вДудь)

Speaking to Mr Dud from exile, Ms Polozkova said she believed Russia was occupied by a “terrorist gang.”

“It is very uncomfortable to be there because you are their hostage,” she told the interviewer.

Her explosive assertions about Mr Putin have pushed Russian law enforcement to demand revenge against her.

Ms Polozkova, who has been the recipient of several literary awards, said warnings regarding Mr Putin from his enemies were not taken seriously enough.

They include politician Boris Nemtsov — shot dead near the Kremlin — and Valeria Novodvorskaya, a Soviet dissident politician diagnosed with “sluggish schizophrenia” and imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital.

“I only know that happy people do not kill and don’t get joy from blood,” she said. “If anyone thinks he’s a happy, rich and powerful man — no, he’s not, he is in hell.”

Speaking from Cyprus, she warned the end of Putinism would not bring about the dawn of a new Russian Federation, but the birth of “a terrible interregnum” that “might be even scarier than the last year”.

“The country that did this to Ukraine will — if it is really lucky — acknowledge it, repent and pay reparations,” she continued.

She described Vladimir Putin as a ‘liar and manipulator’ (Sputnik)

“But to make it liveable after everything that will happen to it. This is just the beginning. I cannot imagine how long it will take. Perhaps it won’t happen during our lifetime.”

Ms Polozkova said the Russian president had thrown his own country “so far back” that it was hard to see how it could re-establish itself on the world’s stage.

She went on to describe Mr Putin as a “liar and manipulator” who brought shame on the memory of World War Two veterans.

Ms Polozkova said Russia ‘now exists as a totalitarian sect’ (YouTube/ вДудь)

Russia and the rest of the world failed to acknowledge the truth about Ms Putin, she said, adding: “Globally, we all didn’t do enough for it not to happen.

“We underestimated the level of threat, we didn’t understand that we really were on board of a plane captured by terrorists who will then do something irreparable to our lives and those of our children.

“It seemed that they were only thieves, losers and idiots. But they really are maniacs.

“My country is occupied by a terrorist gang, it is very uncomfortable to be there because you’re their hostage.”

Ms Polozkova said she believed Russia was occupied by a ‘terrorist gang’ (YouTube/ вДудь)

She concluded: “Formally things have not changed, but everything changed completely, it’s a different state with different laws and rules. The country now exists as a totalitarian sect.”

Supporters of the Russian president have called for Ms Polozkova to face legal action for “discrediting” Moscow, and “treason” for her show of solidarity with the Ukrainian army.