“We must mobilize all our resources to bring the war to an early end. The best and perhaps only way to preserve our civilization is to defeat Putin as soon as possible”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to be the “beginning of the third world war” that could spell the end of civilization, the veteran philanthropist and former financier George Soros has warned.
In a ferocious attack on Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Soros warned that autocratic regimes were in the ascendant and the global economy was heading for a depression. “The invasion may have been the beginning of the Third World War and our civilization may not survive it,” he said.
“The invasion of Ukraine didn’t come out of the blue. The world has been increasingly engaged in a struggle between two systems of governance that are diametrically opposed to each other: open society and closed society.”
Mr. Soros said that he thinks Mr. Putin now believes the invasion of Ukraine was a mistake and the Russian president — who has been dogged with rumors of ill-health — was preparing to negotiate a ceasefire.
“But the ceasefire is unattainable because he cannot be trusted,” the financier said. “The weaker Putin gets the more unpredictable he becomes.”
“Other issues that concern all of humanity — fighting pandemics and climate change, avoiding nuclear war, maintaining global institutions — have had to take a back seat to that struggle. That’s why I say our civilization may not survive,” Soros said.
