Exiled Russian dissidents organise major anti-war protest in Berlin
Three exiled Russian opposition figures, who are unable to operate within Russia, are organising their first major anti-war and anti-Putin demonstration in Berlin on Sunday.
The gathering is expected to serve as a new starting point for the movement, which has been devastated by repression and internal conflicts, reports AFP.
This march, scheduled for Sunday afternoon in the German capital, is being jointly organised by Yulia Navalnaya - the widow of Alexei Navalny who has now taken over the movement's leadership - as well as Ilya Yashin, a former Moscow city council member, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a long-standing Kremlin critic who has survived multiple assassination attempts.
The latter two - Yashin and Kara-Murza - were imprisoned in Russia until August due to their criticism of the Kremlin and denunciation of the invasion of Ukraine. They were subsequently released as part of a major prisoner exchange with the West.
Navalnaya hopes the demonstration will show that "there is an anti-war and free Russia". However, an example of the difficulty of this ambition is the fact that she was compelled to acknowledge, in an interview broadcast on Wednesday by the Russian opposition publication Dozhd, that she does not have a "plan" to bring an end to Vladimir Putin's regime.
Nevertheless, similar to her late husband, Navalnaya continues to believe that a "wonderful Russia" will emerge in the future.
As mentioned on Telegram by Yashin, the march is expected to call for "the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the prosecution of Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, and the release of all political prisoners."
On Wednesday, the Kremlin mocked the Russian opposition figures as "monstrously detached from their country" whose "opinions hold no importance."
Translation by Iurie Tataru
