As Russia stagnates or even retreats in its aggression of Ukraine, former anti-Kremlin Russian politicians met in Poland last weekend.
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These anti-Putin would have taken the opportunity to discuss the future of Russia and plans to oust the president and his entourage, according to the EURACTIV website.
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Organized by ex-MP Ilya Ponomarev, the only one who did not vote in favor of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the three-day rally, which concluded on Sunday, brought together 22 former personalities in office in the 1990s and early 2000s in Russia.
Many agreed that only a violent revolt – a revolution or a civil war – could lead to the collapse of the authoritarian regime in place. The only way to get rid of Putin, for the participants, would be to kill him and his henchmen.
Viacheslav Maltsev told the Euractiv site that “the main objective is to physically eliminate Vladimir Putin” and that “this would trigger a civil war, although less bloody than the war in Ukraine”.
Another official on condition of anonymity told the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza that “the fight against terrorists requires terrorist means”.
Disapproval of the organizer’s method
If the groups of opponents gravitating around Ilya Ponomarev were the most vindictive during this meeting, it is because of the absence of other rival dissident groups. For several observers, regretting among other things the absence of support from Alexeï Navalny, the process of this meeting is tarnished.
The personality of Ilya Ponomarev and his choice of methods of violent revolts are controversial in the circle of opponents of Vladimir Putin, according to an article in the Daily Beast.
Indeed, among the multitude of opponents of the Russian tyrant, Ponomarev is part of “a group that is too radical and too violent”. As the search for genuine opposition to Putin intensifies, these sorts of behaviors could perhaps hurt this initiative.
However, this search has intensified in recent weeks, whether among opponents in Russia or in exile.
Photo QMI Agency / Mario Beauregard
City councilors have called for Vladimir Putin’s resignation in recent months. Elites are beginning to regard the president’s departure as necessary as rumors about his health grow, reducing his legitimacy in power.
Nevertheless, one thing is certain for the head of the Ukrainian intelligence service: “The war in Ukraine will only end with the death of Putin”.