"It is one thing to work in a country that is partly free. It is another thing when the political system has changed, and the country has stopped being free and democratic," he said. He also claimed that he had no more ability to influence the government's course and that Kremlin put limits on him expressing his point of view. Illarionov was openly critical to such elements of the Russian economic policy as the Yukos affair, increasing influence of government officials on private sector and civil rights, as well as the Kremlin pressure on Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute. Illarionov has also been a proponent of recognition of Chechnya's independence. In October 2006, Illarionov was invited to be senior fellow at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity of the US libertarian think tank Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. In this position, he has stated that "[Russia's] new corporate state in which state-owned enterprises are governed by personal interests and private corporations have become subject to arbitrary intervention to serve state interests" as well as "new ways in which political, economic and civil liberties are being eliminated." On 14 April 2007, and 9 June 2007, Illarionov took part in opposition Dissenters' Marches in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, respectively. Illarionov is one of the 34 first signatories of the online anti-Putin manifesto "Putin must go", published on 10 March 2010. As a well known opponent to Vladimir Putin and his policies, he criticized former Czech president Václav Klaus' view that the European Union and the United States did more to escalate conflict in Ukraine than Vladimir Putin did. Views Climate change In 2004 Illarionov likened the Kyoto Protocol to a "concentration camp for the world economy", the Soviet-era GULag forced penal labour camps, and called the Protocol "an international Auschwitz for economic growth". 2008 Russo-Georgian war Illarionov has questioned the official Russian version of the Russian-Georgian war that led to the Russian occupation of Georgia's provinces South Ossetia and Abkhazia. He has provided evidence that the war was launched by the Russian leadership that started aggression against Georgia on 6 August 2008 by bringing its military into South Ossetia and escalating the situation before the Georgian side was forced to respond in the night of 8 August. 2008 Russian financial crisis Illarionov has also stated that Moscow's intervention into Georgia scared away investors and was in part responsible for the