In 2014, he was the only Russian deputy to vote against the annexation of Crimea. Two years later, Ilya Ponomarev left Russia for Ukraine. Very active since the beginning of the war, he is the figurehead of the “Congress of People’s Deputies”, an organization made up of former local elected officials forced into exile, which works to establish a political program for “the post Cheese fries”. His plan: a two-year transition period, during which the purge of the Putin regime would take place. Then, a new Constitution, parliamentary, would be submitted to the vote of the Russians. But to carry out this project, Ilya Ponomarev considers only one means: weapons. Together with others, he has just founded the “Freedom of Russia” legion. At the end of May, these hundreds of Russians engaged alongside the Ukrainian army stormed, with other volunteer units, the town of Belgorod. Too few in number today to pose a real threat to the Kremlin, these hardliners nonetheless represent a real destabilizing factor.
L’Express: The Congress of People’s Deputies, of which you are a member, is working to establish a new Constitution for Russia after Putin. But how can this “new Russia” come into being?
Ilya Ponomarev: We must go to war. Attempts to overthrow Putin’s regime nonviolently have failed. We will not be able to transform Russia by simply taking our turn peacefully from abroad. The other figures of the Russian opposition do not support this position, because it means that they find themselves sidelined, but this movement cannot be stopped any longer. Putin legitimized violence by starting the war.
“No one will spontaneously rise up against Putin”
In a second step, it will be necessary to give a vision of the future of Russia. But this should be prepared in advance. Many opponents imagine they will land in the Kremlin and then improvise. I think it’s a mistake, which will give the same thing as in 1991! You have to write everything down, plan everything today. This is what we, Russian deputies, who were once democratically elected, are doing. Of course, we were not elected by the entire Russian population in national elections. But it is still legitimate.
Many political scientists thought that the beginning of the war, then partial mobilizationwere to provoke massive protest movements that would bring down the regime…
During the last years of the Second World War, when there was no longer any doubt about Hitler’s defeat and the catastrophe into which he had dragged the country, did the Germans rise up against him? No. It will be the same in Russia. No one will spontaneously rise up against Putin. Only a total military defeat will bring him down. And it’s not that far away.
In France, you had Napoleon III. The current Russian regime is very close to it. He is not totalitarian, he is Bonapartist, with plebiscites, media under control, an omnipresent police force, a leader claiming a direct link with the people. For Napoleon III, it ended with his Prussian adventure, his military defeat and his downfall. It will be the same for Putin.
On its social networks, the “Freedom of Russia” legion claims that the “liberation” has already begun in the Belgorod region. In view of the images of Shebekino bombarded and evacuated, it is difficult not to think of the liberation that Putin claimed to bring to the Ukrainians a year and a half ago. How is it different?
It’s no different. It is the same bombardments and the same people responsible: the Russian army. In our very first raid on Russian territory, no civilians were injured. We don’t target them, it’s Putin’s army that is waging war like that! They showed it in Ukraine. When we entered Shebekino, they shelled the town to prevent us from taking it. We haven’t pushed our progress, because we’re not Wagner, we’re not the Russian army. We believe that civilians must be protected. But when we are in Moscow, they won’t be able to bomb the city to stop us…