LONDON Russia’s fragmented opposition abroad is waiting To Alexei Navalny of the widow From Julija Navalnaya a new kind of guiding star.
Operational director of Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption organization FBK Vladimir Ashurkov says Navalnaya is the right kind of leader for the Russian opposition abroad.
– He was a valuable and reliable adviser to Navalny. He is a tenacious and strong leader. In today’s fragile world, Julija is exactly the kind of leader that the Russian opposition needs, Ashurkov says.
He implies that Navalnaya would rise to a significant position in the organization.
– Now that Julija takes on an even more visible role, things will change in the anti-corruption organization. It is too early to say how, Ashurkov said at a foreign correspondents event in London on Wednesday.
Ashurkov, who moved from banker to corruption researcher, and Navalnyi founded FBK together in 2012.
Yuliya Navalnaya vowed after her husband’s death that she would continue his work.
Alexei Navalny died two weeks ago in a Russian Arctic prison camp. Navalnaya, who previously shunned the public, has already met with European Union foreign ministers and the US president since then Joe Biden and spoke in the European Parliament.
Poisoned by Russia Alexander Litvinenko widow Marina Litvinenko sees Yulia Navalnaya as a significant force.
– We are now seeing a new kind of woman’s face for the Russian opposition. It features a woman who has lost her husband and is brave enough to declare that she is going to move on. It will hopefully attract people to unite here abroad, Litvinenko says in an interview with after the press conference.
– Inside Russia, people cannot speak out, but they also understand what he is going through.
He hopes that Yulia Navalnaya would nevertheless find her own voice in her political work. This would not necessarily mean that Navalny would continue to lead the organization.
– Julija has enough advisers to tell what to do. He has to follow his own instinct, says Litvinenko.
The widow compares Navalny’s fate to Litvinenko’s death
Marina Litvinenko has spoken after her husband’s death in the media and at events Vladimir Putin and against the war in Ukraine. However, he has been careful not to identify himself as a politician or a member of a political group.
Litvinenko compares the fate of Alexei Navalny to the death of Aleksandr Litvinenko.
Russian agents poisoned Litvinenko in London with polonium-210 in 2006. The British security service found out that agents of the Russian security service FSB Andrei Lukovoi and Dmitry Kovtun murdered Litvinenko.
Marina Litvinenko took the murder to the European Court of Human Rights.
In its decision in 2021, the court found it clear that Litvinenko died of poisoning after drinking tea with Lukovoi and Kovtun. The court ordered Russia to pay the widow 122,500 euros, but Russia has not paid the amount.
Litvinenko says it will be even more difficult for Yulia Navalnaya to get justice for her husband’s murder.
– I got justice for my husband despite the difficulties here in Britain, but with Putin in power in Russia it is impossible, she says.
The Russian opposition can only raise its voice abroad. At home, protesters face at least imprisonment if not death.
The Russian opposition works a lot abroad
Many of Russia’s prominent opposition representatives live and work in London, where Litvinenko, Ashurkov and the leader of the Russian Democratic Community Ksenia Maksimova spoke at the event of the Foreign Correspondents’ Association.
According to Marina Litvinenko, the opposition’s challenge is different views. Some oppose the war in Ukraine and Putin. Others oppose the war but do not criticize Putin.
In Russia, opposition activities are impossible. The situation is not helped by exhorting the Russians from the outside to demonstrate their opposition to the war without fear.
– You know what happened to these brave people. Just updating social media or sticking stickers on shop goods can mean at least two years in prison, says Litvinenko.
Artist Sasha Skotshilenko was sentenced to seven years in prison in November when he pasted stickers containing anti-war texts on food items in a grocery store.
Ksenia Maksimova considers it important that the world does not recognize Putin as president of Russia after the upcoming elections.
The former supermodel, known as the face of fashion houses, is now organizing demonstrations in London and campaigning for the release of political prisoners. Maksimova also helped Russians flee the country after the start of the war in Ukraine.
Ksenia Maksimova says that Russia’s opposition abroad is extensive. Thousands of people who left Russia campaigned for democracy.
– We lobby governments. We organize cultural events. We unite Russians abroad. In the current climate, it is difficult to be a Russian abroad, Maksimova said at the event.
Russians are easily lumped together as Putin’s henchmen. The bank account of Maksimova’s organization has been frozen several times when money has been sent to support Ukraine or to support political prisoners in Russia.
“Navalnyi’s supporters have not disappeared anywhere”
Today, the headquarters of the FBK organization is in Vilnius, Lithuania. 70 people work at the headquarters. The organization campaigned for years on the ground in Russia, until it was declared illegal.
According to Vladimir Ashurkov, the organization still maintains contact with Russia, for example by publishing YouTube videos in which it exposes the corruption of the Russian administration.
The organization also helps activists distribute anti-war leaflets through secret contacts and guides activist recruiters to avoid surveillance cameras. In addition, the organization lobbies foreign powers to help those fleeing Russia.
According to Ashurkov, there is no silver bullet, i.e. a revolutionary solution, with which the West and the opposition can get rid of Putin. The opposition relies on persistent action, which at some point will produce results.
– Millions of Navalny’s supporters in Russia have not disappeared anywhere. The war has only contributed to the end of Putin’s regime. People are not satisfied with the stagnation of the standard of living and the flow of coffins coming from the battlefields of Ukraine every day, he says.
– There will come a time when this dissatisfaction will bring political change in Russia.
The problem is that the world wants to talk to one leader, says Ksenia Maksimova. So far, the opposition has not managed to elect one.
Perhaps one can now be found in Yulia Navalnaya. He and other representatives of the Russian opposition mourn Alexei Navalny’s funeral abroad. In Russia, they would be threatened with imprisonment.