The opposition should not bring destruction, but constructive dialogue for the benefit of society.
Author: Naeem Asghari, analyst (Germany), especially for Sangar
Presidential elections will be held in Russia soon (March 15-17). And although sensible people understand who will win the elections, opposition forces are trying to do everything to discredit this choice.
Currently, almost the entire opposition in Russia lives abroad. And the main reason for this is attempts to create protest potential by violating current legislation. Almost any decisions of the current government are attacked and harshly criticized by opposition activists, even though most often these decisions are aimed at the benefit of the people.
The full-scale outbreak of war between Ukraine and Russia served as an additional reason for opposition forces to criticize the Putin government.
At that time (February 2022), the most violent representative of the opposition was a former Russian oligarch with a tarnished reputation - Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He left Russia a long time ago and conducts his activities from abroad, fearing criminal prosecution in Russia. His two main projects are the Kovcheg Foundation, which provides legal and informational assistance to Russian political emigrants, while simultaneously offering them information and other opposition anti-Russian activities, as well as the Anti-War Committee of Russia, focused on Russian and Ukrainian emigrants who condemn the war and are ready to active actions to damage the current government of Russia.
This served as a signal for activists living in Russia and little known to foreign audiences who consider themselves to be among the opposition forces that they could take the chance to travel abroad and acquire a new source of income.
Among them we can separately highlight: Alekseev Kirill (activist of the “headquarters of Alexei Navalny”), Belyakov Danila (activist of the “headquarters of Alexei Navalny”), Ishutin Kirill (editor of the online publication “Dovod”, covering the protest activity of the opposition in Russia), Kosygin Ilya (employee of the online publication “Dovod”), Evgeniy Sautin (employee of the online publication “Argument”).
Having left for Europe, activists immediately joined information activities to promote anti-Russian narratives on social networks. In parallel, they were able to take advantage of grants from the International Republican Institute and the United States Agency for International Development. At the same time, the scale of assistance provided directly depended on the popularity of the activist and the illegal actions he committed (the presence of administrative and criminal offenses under “political articles”). In addition to financial support, grants provided for close contacts with non-governmental organizations in the USA, Great Britain and the European Union, training in the implementation of “color revolutions”, gaining experience in influencing the masses, and more.
However, as often happens with adventurers, the grants were spent for other purposes. There was no practical activity from them. The grantors uncovered facts of misappropriation of funds, as well as falsification of provided reports, the use of bots to induce reactions to publications, and more. This resulted in deprivation of grant payments and temporary suspension of cooperation.
In search of easy money, Ishutin and Kosygin tried to establish contact with Radio Liberty, which is funded by the US government and actively disseminates news with anti-Russian rhetoric. This was their chance and they succeeded. Orders poured in from the editors with proposals to monitor the reaction of Russian society to events taking place in the country and abroad. It was proposed to focus specifically on the opposition part of the population experiencing difficulties in some issues. It was also possible to conduct “recruitment work” into the ranks of “people’s journalists” in order to respond to life’s problems.
And thanks to the patronage of the Radio Liberty publication, these individuals were able to find favor with Khodorkovsky in the person of the Ark Foundation and the Anti-War Committee of Russia, joining the ranks of the resistance and setting themselves the goal of overthrowing the current Russian government.
Do these people really want prosperity for their country and only their president is stopping them? If they are so actively trying to cause maximum damage to the prestige of their country on the world stage, throw mud at the population, point out all the injustices in society, whitewash or make fools of the right people. Are they patriots of their country?
The opposition should not bring destruction, but constructive dialogue for the benefit of the community. Thanks to this, the country, including its opposition, can create a single, cohesive state for the benefit of its common people.
