Photo: Ralf Hirschberger Agence France-Presse Vladimir Kara-Murza, Yulia Navalnaya, widow of former Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin attend a demonstration by exiled Russian opposition supporters in Berlin, November 17, 2024.
Agence France-Presse
Posted at 10:35 AM Updated at 1:38 PM
- Europe
More than a thousand supporters of the Russian opposition in exile, led in particular by Yulia Navalnaya, marched in Berlin on Sunday against Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine, a limited turnout for a weakened movement that had hoped to revive.
The participants in this march marched through the center of the German capital shouting “No to war!”, “Russia without Putin!” and “Russia will be free!”, before ending in front of the Russian embassy, AFP journalists noted.
Organizers estimated the number at up to 2,000, far fewer than in previous major opposition-led protests in Russia in 2021 — even as Berlin hosts a multitude of Russian exiles.
The opposition, which lost its leading figure, Alexei Navalny, to his death in prison in unclear circumstances in February, is being repressed in Russia and is trying to revive the movement from abroad.
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of this opposition figure who has taken over the reins of her movement, led the march with the other initiators of the mobilization: Ilya Yashin, a former Moscow municipal deputy recently released from prison, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a long-time critic of the Kremlin who survived prison and two attempts of poisoning.
“We must fight against Putin’s regime […], fight against this war that Putin has unleashed against Ukraine!” Navalnaya told the crowd. “We are here to say that Putin is a war criminal.” “His place is not in the Kremlin but in prison,” said Mr. Yashin.
The demonstration, the first major protest action organized by the Russian opposition abroad, aimed to demand the “immediate withdrawal” of Russian troops from Ukraine, the dismissal and trial of Vladimir Putin and the release of all political prisoners in Russia.
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“It is important to show that Russians and Russian speakers are not all for Putin but that they also defend liberal democratic values, that they are against war,” said one protester, Polina Zelenskaya, a 21-year-old Russian-speaking student from from Estonia.
Another protester, Dmitri Tolmachiov, a 55-year-old entrepreneur who left Russia three years ago amid threats of prosecution for his activism, said it was his “duty” to protest on behalf of those who cannot do so in his country.
“If we do nothing, nothing will change,” he told AFP.
“Putin didn’t just take the country from Ukrainians, he took our freedom,” added Valeria Alyoshina, a 30-year-old Russian who arrived from Nice in southeastern France.
The Russian government has methodically stamped out any protest movement in recent years, throwing hundreds, if not thousands, of people behind the bars.
«Political force»
“It was very important for us to show that we are numerous, that we are capable of consolidating ourselves and that we are a real political force,” Mr. Yashin declared after the demonstration.
Beyond the slogans, the Russian opposition is nevertheless struggling to propose a concrete approach that would lead to the end of the war and the departure of Vladimir Putin. Yulia Navalnaya admitted in an interview with the opposition TV channel Dozhd on Wednesday that she had no “plan” in this regard.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had mocked opponents “monstrously detached from their country” and whose “opinion has no importance” on Wednesday.
Photo: Ralf Hirschberger Agence France-Presse A placard reading “Putin in court” is attached to a mannequin in prison garb with a photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin during a demonstration by supporters of the Russian opposition in exile in Berlin, November 17, 2024.
Several scandals within the Russian opposition have also weakened it and caused frustration among some of its activists.
The cause is the assault with a hammer on an ally of Alexei Navalny, the victim having pointed the finger at the movement of the former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Or these accusations against the anti-corruption foundation of the late opponent which allegedly covered up machinations by corrupt bankers in Russia.
Another difficulty for the opposition: its reluctance to provide more marked support to Ukraine, beyond its demand for an “immediate end” to the conflict. Such support could alienate the Russian population and destroy any hope of a future political career in a post-Putin Russia.
The march had also been harshly criticized by the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Oleksiy Makeyev, who had described it in the columns of Zeit as a “walk without dignity and without consequences.”