For weeks, different currents of the Russian opposition in exile have been tearing each other apart over compromising files, a war of “kompromats” which exasperates activists wanting to get back to basics: the fight against Putin and support for Ukraine .
In the midst of these incessant quarrels, notably between the camp of the late opponent Alexeï Navalny and that of the ex-oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, militant action seems to take a back seat.
As in Berlin, October 3, Brandenburg Gate. That day, in the German capital — where many anti-Putin Russians and Ukrainians have found refuge — there were only barely thirty for a demonstration against the Kremlin.
Not enough to overshadow the thousands of people gathered not far away, at the call of Sahra Wagenknecht, a figure of the German far left with pro-Moscow sympathies, who is calling for an end to military support for the Ukraine.
Alguimantas Chavshin, a 34-year-old Russian, holds a piece of cardboard softened by the rain on which is written: “Support Ukraine against Putin”. He is saddened that the Russian opposition has not united around this cause.
According to this activist, who arrived in Germany at the end of 2023, the Russian opposition has “lost authority” by not calling “clearly for the delivery of more weapons to Ukraine” and by not supporting “a Russian resistance which organizes sabotage in Russia.
The opposition also fails, he notes, to motivate tens of thousands of anti-war Russian exiles who “feel like their voices cannot resonate.”
An annoyance accentuated by the fact that anti-Kremlin movements spend a lot of time confronting each other, through social networks, sometimes even descending into hatred and violence.
FSB and “natural” divisions
In mid-September, Alexeï Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK) published an investigation with extremely serious accusations targeting the rival camp, that of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
The FBK accuses businessman Leonid Nevzline, close to the ex-oligarch who spent 10 years in Russian jails, of having ordered a hammer attack in Lithuania, in March 2024, against Leonid Volkov, the former right-hand man of Alexeï Navalny.
According to the FBK, Mr. Nevzline would also have ordered an attack against Ivan Zhdanov, another close friend of Navalny, in Geneva, in June 2023, and against the wife of an economist who had been hit by an unknown person, in Argentina, at the fall 2023.
The organization bases its revelations on extracts from Leonid Nevzlin’s correspondence that it allegedly obtained from a dark character, Andreï Matous. However, the latter is known to have worked with the FSB, the Russian services.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who denies any involvement, believes that the FBK could have been manipulated by Moscow agents.
At the beginning of October, a new scandal. Another exiled opponent, in conflict with the Navalny camp, Maxime Katz, launches his “kompromat”.
He accuses the FBK of covering up the machinations of crooked bankers who stole money from clients in Russia. Which, if the facts are proven, will undermine the credibility of a movement based on the fight against Kremlin corruption.
“Same trench”
Interviewed on October 2 by AFP, Mikhail Khodorkovsky tried to minimize these conflicts: “It is natural in a situation where there is still an indefinitely long time before the regime is defeated.”
Kira Iarmysh, the spokesperson for Alexeï Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaïa, who took over from her husband after his death in a prison in the Russian Arctic, did not respond to requests from the ‘AFP.
At the Brandenburg Gate on October 3, the handful of activists who denounce the invasion of Ukraine and the repression in Russia look grim.
Olga Galkina, an activist from St. Petersburg, strives, microphone in hand, to host the event. She also regrets the wars waged by opponents.
“We’re all in the same trench!” “, she said. “Until we can return to Russia and do politics there, we cannot afford to argue. »
The opponent Ilia Iachine, imprisoned in Russia for having condemned the invasion and released during a prisoner exchange in August, recently went to Poland for a conference at the University of Warsaw, in front of around 250 people.
A Ukrainian refugee from Donbass questions him about this divided Russian opposition, he who knows how to maintain courteous relations with the various currents.
In an admission of helplessness, he admits not knowing how to bring all the movements together, or even how to ask them to “make peace” without being dragged into these conflicts.
“These fights seem so insignificant,” compared to the ordeal in Ukraine and the repression in Russia, says Ilia Iachine, who would like to see the war end and Mr. Putin brought to justice.
“The only thing I can do is show that we can work […] without arguing,” he concludes.