Summary
- Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition politician, called for a diverse delegation to represent Kremlin opponents at PACE to ensure legitimacy.
- PACE voted to create a platform for dialogue with Russian democratic forces, aiming to support democratic change in Russia and address war crimes in Ukraine.
- The decision sparked tensions among Russian opposition figures abroad, with debates over the inclusion of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).
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’s main human rights body.
In an interview with Current Time, Kara-Murza said that a future delegation of Kremlin opponents outside Russia to PACE should “carry the widest possible representative character,” stressing that this was “the only thing that can ensure [its] legitimacy.”
SEE ALSO: 'Intentional Poisoning': New FBI Records, New Clues To Kremlin Critic's Sudden IllnessesHe spoke on October 6, five days after PACE voted 80-0, with four abstentions, to “establish a Platform for Dialogue with Russian Democratic Forces” in order to “address issues of common concern.”
The PACE resolution says it aims to “strengthen 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.”
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’s government a platform for dialogue with the rights body was “historic,” Kara-Murza told Current Time, the Russian-language TV and digital network run by RFE/RL.
“The voice of…the Russian democratic opposition will be heard within the walls of the Council of Europe,” he said, calling it “the 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.”
SEE ALSO: A Year After Navalny's Death In Prison, His Associates Struggle On AbroadBut the PACE decision set off angry exchanges between figures and factions in the fractured Russia opposition on social media, aggravating tensions that have long been a hurdle to unified action.
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.
'Criticism And Controversy'
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.
But it said that, in addition to its achievements, the FBK “also attracted attention through actions that triggered criticism and controversy within the Russian opposition” and had not signed a “Declaration of Russian Democratic Forces” issued in Berlin in 2023.
SEE ALSO: A Year After Navalny's Death In Prison, His Associates Struggle On Abroad“The attempts made so far to engage them in the Assembly’s initiatives…have not been successful and as of now they do not qualify as Russian Democratic Forces as defined by the Assembly,” the memorandum said.
That passage was noted by senior FBK figures such as Maria Pevchikh and Leonid Volkov and set off a series of exchanges of online criticism, in some cases pitting them against other opposition figures including Khodorkovsky.
Kara-Murza dismissed the idea that Navalnaya and FBK members would not be welcome as “ridiculous,” saying that the memorandum was a “preliminary document” and that the mechanism for forming the delegation has not yet been worked out.
“It is clear that the FBK is one of the leading organizations of the Russian democratic opposition,” he said. “And my personal position is that they must certainly be invited to participate in the process.”
Political Prisoners
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.
SEE ALSO: Imprisoned Kara-Murza Says Putin's Rule Based 'Exclusively On Fear And Apathy'A longtime opponent of Putin and his government, Kara-Murza was arrested in April 2022, shortly after publicly accusing the “dictatorial regime in the Kremlin” of committing “war crimes” in Ukraine.
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.
Along with pressing for justice in “the crimes committed by Putin’s regime in Ukraine,” Kara-Murza said a key topic for PACE and the opposition delegation should be “international support for Russian political prisoners, whose number is growing every day.”
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.