The war of the “kompromats” exasperates Russian opposition activists

For weeks, different currents of the Russian opposition in exile have been tearing each other apart with compromising files, a war of “kompromats” that exasperates activists who want to get back to basics: the fight against Putin and support for Ukraine.

In the midst of these incessant quarrels, particularly between the camp of the late opponent Alexei Navalny and that of the former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, militant action seems to take a back seat.

As in Berlin, on October 3, at the Brandenburg Gate. That day, in the German capital — where many anti-Putin Russians and Ukrainians have found refuge — there are only about thirty of them for a demonstration against the Kremlin.

Not enough to overshadow the thousands of people gathered not far from there, 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 Ukraine.

Algimantas 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 that organizes sabotage in Russia.”

The opposition also fails, he notes, to motivate tens of thousands of anti-war Russian exiles who have “the impression that their voices cannot resonate.”

An annoyance accentuated by the fact that the anti-Kremlin movements spend a lot of time confronting each other, via social networks, sometimes even lapsing into hatred and violence.

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FSB and “natural” divisions

In mid-September, Alexei 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 Nevzlin, close to the former 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 Alexei Navalny.

According to the FBK, Mr. Nevzlin also ordered an attack on Ivan Zhdanov, another close friend of Navalny, in Geneva in June 2023, and on the wife of an economist who was beaten by an unknown assailant in Argentina in the fall of 2023.

The organization bases its revelations on extracts from Leonid Nevzlin's correspondence that it allegedly obtained from a shadowy character, Andrei 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 may have been manipulated by Moscow agents.

Early October, 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 corrupt bankers who stole money from clients in Russia. Which, if the facts are proven, could 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's natural in a situation where there is still an indefinitely long time before the regime is defeated.”

Kira Iarmych, the spokesperson for Alexei Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, who took over from her husband after his death in a prison in the Russian Arctic, did not respond to requests from AFP.

At the Brandenburg Gate on October 3, the handful of activists who denounce the invasion of Ukraine and the repression in Russia are looking grim.

Olga Galkina, an activist from St. Petersburg, tries to liven up the event, microphone in hand. She also laments the wars that the opponents are waging against each other.

“We are all in the same trench!” she says. “Until we can return to Russia and do politics, we cannot afford to argue. »

Opposition leader Ilya Yashin, imprisoned in Russia for condemning the invasion and released in 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 asks 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 that he does not know how to bring all the movements together, or even how to ask them to “make peace” without being drawn into these conflicts.

“These fights seem so insignificant,” compared to the ordeal in Ukraine and the repression in Russia, says Ilya Yashin, 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.