Russia’s opposition fails to form united front against Vladimir Putin

Russia’s fiercest opponents gathered in Brussels this week to plot a return to democracy, with Vladimir Putin’s main rivals jailed or exiled and debating how to move forward.

Instead of uniting Russia’s liberals, the war in Ukraine has deepened existing rifts and added new disputes, such as favoring a military defeat for Moscow and Kiev’s reparations demands, which some see as a reparation for the Russians. considered politically toxic.

“They have these inroads, and it will probably take some time,” said Lithuanian MEP Andreas Kubilius, who invited opposition groups to the European Parliament this week. “It would be nice if they were able to show more unity around some sort of strategy.”

Although the European Union had hoped to bring them together, the divide was again on display when followers of jailed anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, the most popular Russian opposition leader, refused to attend the parliament event.

Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, which operates out of Lithuania, declined the conference invitation for fear of being “in the same boat” with rival opposition activists, according to Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s longtime chief of staff. , who did not share his views.

The European Union, which sent senior officials to the conference, tried to convince the opposition to produce a concrete plan for democracy and to unite Russians against the war. “We want to work with Russia, but a different Russia,” said Michael Siebert, East Europe and Central Asia director of the EU diplomatic service.

But opposition groups remain divided over how to achieve that separate Russia – and who should lead it.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man and now Putin’s most prominent rival after Navalny, blamed Navalny’s group for maintaining “states of conflict”.

“He can only have a leader in his mind,” Khodorkovsky said in an interview. “It doesn’t fit their worldview that you can have too many leaders – that this room is full of them.”

Navalny, 47, first shot to fame in the early 2010s by ignoring the opposition’s internal squabbling and focusing on building a dynamic, web-savvy movement that exposed corruption.

Unlike his rivals, he mostly avoided Western embassy parties and traveled to European conferences, insisting that focusing on the real concerns of Russians gave him greater legitimacy.

In 2021, he returned to Moscow from Berlin, where he was recovering after being poisoned with a nerve agent, which he blamed on Putin. On his return he was immediately arrested and his organization was banned.

Anyone who associates with Navalny’s group or protests against the war faces possible arrest – a move that has made it difficult for his organization to stage rallies, which only two years ago swept the country. attracted hundreds of thousands of people across the country. A small number of supporters took to the streets last Sunday to wish Navalny a happy birthday.

Vladimir Milov, who informally advises Navalny but is not part of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, said that “he has such huge, political capital, developed with blood, sweat and tears” and many opposition The prospect of being one of the groups just wasn’t appealing to them.

Khodorkovsky – who devoted his 50-minute interview to criticizing Navalny’s team – said the difference was between a “revolutionary party and a popular front coalition”, as in Russia before the October Revolution in 1917.

Khodorkovsky said, “We do not know of any such case when a revolutionary party took power and democracy finally came to the fore.” “With a popular front, it doesn’t always happen, but it often does.”

Although Khodorkovsky has sought to build a broad coalition by reaching out to young activists, he too is not immune to bickering.

At another recent closed-door forum in Vilnius, which was attended by both he and Navalny’s team, a close aide of Khodorkovsky’s spoke loudly against Volkov until the moderator took away his microphone. . Khodorkovsky’s YouTube broadcasts have so far failed to match Navalny’s audience.

Nonetheless, Khodorkovsky said the war had put Navalny’s team on par with the rest of the opposition. “I have nothing against impunity. It’s great to work with people who are in Russia. But we can see from (the small pro-Navalny rally) that they can’t do it even under a totalitarian regime, Khodorkovsky said.

“They are in the same position . . . as everyone else. The only difference is that we are not ready to expose the supporters (of Russia’s retaliation),” he said.

Oleksiy Erestovich, a former senior Ukrainian official and popular commentator on Russian-language YouTube, asked conference attendees to set aside their differences. “I talk to the Russian opposition a lot, and every second sentence begins with a complaint about other members of the Russian opposition,” Erestovich said. “If you have a common goal like an open, democratic Russia, that should be a sufficient basis for working together.”

Some European officials hoped the Russian opposition could follow its Belarusian counterparts in creating a joint platform and centralized office that could lobby Westerners on behalf of Russians and help the anti-war diaspora. But the Brussels conference ended without immediate prospects for such a move.

EU MP Kubilius warned that the events could backfire on all parties.

“When a revolution starts, and it can come from anywhere, it is very difficult to predict who will be the leader.”

Russia’s fiercest opponents gathered in Brussels this week to plot a return to democracy, with Vladimir Putin’s main rivals jailed or exiled and debating how to move forward.

Instead of uniting Russia’s liberals, the war in Ukraine has deepened existing rifts and added new disputes, such as favoring a military defeat for Moscow and Kiev’s reparations demands, which some see as a reparation for the Russians. considered politically toxic.

“They have these inroads, and it will probably take some time,” said Lithuanian MEP Andreas Kubilius, who invited opposition groups to the European Parliament this week. “It would be nice if they were able to show more unity around some sort of strategy.”

Although the European Union had hoped to bring them together, the divide was again on display when followers of jailed anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, the most popular Russian opposition leader, refused to attend the parliament event.

Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, which operates out of Lithuania, declined the conference invitation for fear of being “in the same boat” with rival opposition activists, according to Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s longtime chief of staff. , who did not share his views.

The European Union, which sent senior officials to the conference, tried to convince the opposition to produce a concrete plan for democracy and to unite Russians against the war. “We want to work with Russia, but a different Russia,” said Michael Siebert, East Europe and Central Asia director of the EU diplomatic service.

But opposition groups remain divided over how to achieve that separate Russia – and who should lead it.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man and now Putin’s most prominent rival after Navalny, blamed Navalny’s group for maintaining “states of conflict”.

“He can only have a leader in his mind,” Khodorkovsky said in an interview. “It doesn’t fit their worldview that you can have too many leaders – that this room is full of them.”

Navalny, 47, first shot to fame in the early 2010s by ignoring the opposition’s internal squabbling and focusing on building a dynamic, web-savvy movement that exposed corruption.

Unlike his rivals, he mostly avoided Western embassy parties and traveled to European conferences, insisting that focusing on the real concerns of Russians gave him greater legitimacy.

In 2021, he returned to Moscow from Berlin, where he was recovering after being poisoned with a nerve agent, which he blamed on Putin. On his return he was immediately arrested and his organization was banned.

Anyone who associates with Navalny’s group or protests against the war faces possible arrest – a move that has made it difficult for his organization to stage rallies, which only two years ago swept the country. attracted hundreds of thousands of people across the country. A small number of supporters took to the streets last Sunday to wish Navalny a happy birthday.

Vladimir Milov, who informally advises Navalny but is not part of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, said that “he has such huge, political capital, developed with blood, sweat and tears” and many opposition The prospect of being one of the groups just wasn’t appealing to them.

Khodorkovsky – who devoted his 50-minute interview to criticizing Navalny’s team – said the difference was between a “revolutionary party and a popular front coalition”, as in Russia before the October Revolution in 1917.

Khodorkovsky said, “We do not know of any such case when a revolutionary party took power and democracy finally came to the fore.” “With a popular front, it doesn’t always happen, but it often does.”

Although Khodorkovsky has sought to build a broad coalition by reaching out to young activists, he too is not immune to bickering.

At another recent closed-door forum in Vilnius, which was attended by both he and Navalny’s team, a close aide of Khodorkovsky’s spoke loudly against Volkov until the moderator took away his microphone. . Khodorkovsky’s YouTube broadcasts have so far failed to match Navalny’s audience.

Nonetheless, Khodorkovsky said the war had put Navalny’s team on par with the rest of the opposition. “I have nothing against impunity. It’s great to work with people who are in Russia. But we can see from (the small pro-Navalny rally) that they can’t do it even under a totalitarian regime, Khodorkovsky said.

“They are in the same position . . . as everyone else. The only difference is that we are not ready to expose the supporters (of Russia’s retaliation),” he said.

Oleksiy Erestovich, a former senior Ukrainian official and popular commentator on Russian-language YouTube, asked conference attendees to set aside their differences. “I talk to the Russian opposition a lot, and every second sentence begins with a complaint about other members of the Russian opposition,” Erestovich said. “If you have a common goal like an open, democratic Russia, that should be a sufficient basis for working together.”

Some European officials hoped the Russian opposition could follow its Belarusian counterparts in creating a joint platform and centralized office that could lobby Westerners on behalf of Russians and help the anti-war diaspora. But the Brussels conference ended without immediate prospects for such a move.

EU MP Kubilius warned that the events could backfire on all parties.

“When a revolution starts, and it can come from anywhere, it is very difficult to predict who will be the leader.”