Exiled Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza sought to ease tensions that erupted among Kremlin foes abroad over a decision by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to give opponents of President Vladimir Putin a stronger voice at Europe\u2019s main human rights body.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Current Time, Kara-Murza said that a future delegation of Kremlin opponents outside Russia to PACE should \u201ccarry the widest possible representative character,\u201d stressing that this was \u201cthe only thing that can ensure [its] legitimacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He spoke on October 6, five days after PACE voted 80-0, with four abstentions, to \u201cestablish a Platform for Dialogue with Russian Democratic Forces\u201d in order to \u201caddress issues of common concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
The PACE resolution<\/strong><\/a> says it aims to \u201cstrengthen the capacity of Russian democratic forces to bring about a sustainable democratic change in Russia and help achieve a lasting and just peace in Ukraine, alongside ensuring the responsibility of Russian actors for the international crimes committed.\u201d<\/p>\n Russia was ejected from the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly weeks after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The decision to give opponents of Putin\u2019s government a platform for dialogue with the rights body was \u201chistoric,\u201d Kara-Murza told Current Time, the Russian-language TV and digital network run by RFE\/RL.<\/p>\n \u201cThe voice of\u2026the Russian democratic opposition will be heard within the walls of the Council of Europe,\u201d he said, calling it \u201cthe most important platform for the development of a road map in the wall for the reintegration of a future, post-Putin Russia into the European legal space and European institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n But the PACE decision set off angry exchanges<\/strong><\/a> between figures and factions in the fractured Russia opposition on social media, aggravating tensions<\/strong><\/a> that have long been a hurdle to unified action.<\/p>\n The main source of tension over the decision was a memorandum that was published alongside the resolution on the PACE website, listing some of the main Russian opposition forces abroad and what appeared to be criteria for potential inclusion in the group that will represent the Russian opposition at the assembly.<\/p>\n ‘Criticism And Controversy’<\/strong><\/p>\n Among others, such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Garry Kasparov, and Kara-Murza, it listed the late Aleksei Navalny and his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), now run by his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, and other associates.<\/p>\n But it said that, in addition to its achievements, the FBK \u201calso attracted attention through actions that triggered criticism and controversy within the Russian opposition\u201d and had not signed a \u201cDeclaration of Russian Democratic Forces<\/strong><\/a>\u201d issued in Berlin in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cThe attempts made so far to engage them in the Assembly\u2019s initiatives\u2026have not been successful and as of now they do not qualify as Russian Democratic Forces as defined by the Assembly,\u201d the memorandum said.<\/p>\n That passage was noted by senior FBK figures such as Maria Pevchikh<\/strong><\/a> and Leonid Volkov<\/strong><\/a> and set off a series of exchanges of online criticism, in some cases pitting them against other opposition figures including Khodorkovsky<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Kara-Murza dismissed the idea that Navalnaya and FBK members would not be welcome as \u201cridiculous,\u201d saying that the memorandum was a \u201cpreliminary document\u201d and that the mechanism for forming the delegation has not yet been worked out.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is clear that the FBK is one of the leading organizations of the Russian democratic opposition,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd my personal position is that they must certainly be invited to participate in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n Political Prisoners<\/strong><\/p>\n Kara-Murza said he hopes that selection of members of the opposition platform can begin in mid-December, after a mechanism is created, and that the delegation will be in place in time for a PACE plenary session that begins in late January.<\/p>\n A longtime opponent of Putin and his government, Kara-Murza was arrested in April 2022, shortly after publicly accusing the \u201cdictatorial regime in the Kremlin\u201d of committing \u201cwar crimes\u201d in Ukraine.<\/p>\n He was convicted of treason and sentenced to 25 years in prison — the longest term handed down to a critic of Putin or the war in Ukraine — and was one of 16 people freed from Russian custody in a major prisoner exchange in August 2024.<\/p>\n Along with pressing for justice in \u201cthe crimes committed by Putin\u2019s regime in Ukraine,\u201d Kara-Murza said a key topic for PACE and the opposition delegation should be \u201cinternational support for Russian political prisoners, whose number is growing every day.\u201d<\/p>\n Most of the most prominent Russian opposition figures are now abroad, but large numbers of people who have criticized the war against Ukraine are behind bars in Russia, where a long-spiraling clampdown on dissent has intensified during the full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n Written by Steve Gutterman based on an interview conducted by Aleksei Aleksandrov of Current Time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exiled Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza sought to ease tensions that erupted among Kremlin foes abroad over 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