MOSCOW I think the Russian opposition has enough problems without mutual showdowns.
The rulers have crushed the opposition in Russia, and its prominent leaders are either in exile or in prison.
But in addition, the Russian opposition often likes to shoot itself in the foot.
The latest round of scandals started when the opposition leader sitting in prison To Alexei Navalny allies released on Tuesday reveal video (you will switch to another service) The corruption of the Russian elite.
According to a new video by Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation FBK, the mayor of Moscow By Sergei Sobyan diverted millions of rubles from the funds intended for the welfare of the capital’s citizens to PR work for the benefit of the mayor himself.
FBK reported that the editor-in-chief of the state media institution RT was on the other side Margarita Simonyana celebrity who also appeared as a liberal politician Ksenija Sobtsak and former editor-in-chief of Eho Moskvy radio station Alexei Venediktov.
Before its closure last year, Eho Moskvy, piloted by Venediktov, was the last significant platform for liberal and critical voices.
Venediktov’s revenge did not have to wait long. He published a letter dated February 7 in which a number of Russian opposition politicians, including a close ally of Navalny Leonid Volkovasked the EU Commission to relax the sanctions against the management of the Alfa banking group.
The most famous representatives of the alpha group are the oligarchs Pyotr Ave and Mikhail Fridman.
The idea in the letter was that these businessmen had distanced themselves from the president Vladimir Putin administration and were critical of the war against Ukraine.
The letter looked very much like a cabinet intrigue in favor of Russian billionaires.
First, Leonid Volkov announced that his signature was forged.
Then Venediktov posted on his Telegram channel Volkov to the EU foreign policy representative For Josep Borrell addressed to the letter, in which Volkov again proposed easing sanctions on the leadership of the Alfa Group.
Very quickly, Volkov himself went public with the same letter and admitted that he had written it.
– This letter was a big political mistake. What’s worse, when I did it, I exceeded my authority – I didn’t sign it as a person, but in the name of the organization, Volkov wrote and announced that he was leaving the chairmanship of the FBK board.
As for sanctions, in Volkov’s reasoning you can see the idea: sanctions should rather be used to drive wedges into the Russian elite.
Mass sanctions against members of the Russian elite rather push them to close their ranks around Putin.
Volkov suggested that easing the sanctions could serve as a carrot, if their target, for example, condemns the war and pays reparations to Ukraine.
However, in his letter, Volkov painted a slightly too pure picture of the people of the Alfa group. Pyotr Aven and Mihail Fridman would not have succeeded in Russian business without close relations with the Kremlin.
Alpha group’s close relations with the Kremlin are written by (you move to another service) journalists Farida Rustamova and Max Tovkailo In The Moscow Times.
No one walks away from a scandal with clean feet. Undeniably, Venediktov has made numerous compromises with those in power in his career.
It is unlikely that his radio channel would have stayed on the airwaves for so long without it, as the ownership of the station was in the hands of the state-owned gas giant Gazprom’s media company.
So you can blame that Eho Moskvy offered a kind of smokescreen to those in power. The Russian leadership could use it to show that there were still critical media in the country.
On the other hand, the radio station had the opportunity to question the official truth. Roskomnadzor’s excerpts showed that even that irritated the authorities.
The case does not look good for Navalny’s camp either. Although Leonid Volkov was quick to take the blame and resign from the FBK board, Navalny’s people are now suspected of working to bring down the Alfa group.
The case is sure to arouse sweet gloating in the Kremlin, especially among the curators of domestic politics.
Ordinary Russians relate to politicians usually with skepticism, and it is precisely such disputes that fuel the image that all politicians are ultimately speculators and scoundrels.
That perception, on the other hand, is apt to maintain political passivity, which suits the Kremlin well.
Personal conflicts have long been the pet peeve of the Russian opposition. It may be that the quarrels only get more fuel in exile, when the opposition is even more powerless to influence things.
Those opposition figures who, like Aleksei Navalnyi, Ilya Yashinin and Vladimir Kara-Murzan are sitting in Russian prisons.