(Picture: AP)
As Russia’s economy groans under the load of sanctions, speculation is growing about discontent rising against Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Yet, few consider that any serious challenge will come from its opposition – each from those inside and people abroad.
Vladimir Osechkin, Russian dissident and founding father of Gulagu.net, a human rights group that investigates torture within the Russian prison system, warned that opposition figures ‘keep falling for Kremlin traps and intrigues’.
He told Metro: ‘Russian opposition figures are fragmented and divided; there may be constant infighting, bickering, and conflict.
‘The struggle will not be against Putin but against each other. This sad and disheartening spectacle has already turned many individuals away and deprived the opposition of support and influence, even amongst emigrants.
‘Many opposition figures are vain and focused on self-promotion reasonably than unity.
‘So long as this continues, I see no prospects for solidarity, partly because many oppositionists are politically immature.
They fail to know the character of the enemy and the methods of the Putin–KGB-FSB-SVR system.
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‘They keep falling for Kremlin traps and intrigues, while the Kremlin invests a whole lot of tens of millions of dollars yearly in energetic measuresassassinations of opponents and the orchestration of recent quarrels and intrigues.’
This comes after the Federal Security Service (FSB) warned that Mikhail Khodorkovsky – once Russia’s wealthiest man – who has been living in exile in London, and 22 members of Russia’s Anti-War Committee are plotting a coup.
All were accused of conspiring a violent seizure of power and forming a ‘terrorist community.’
The oil tycoon was imprisoned in 2003 on charges of fraud and tax evasion – what his lawyers have described as politically-motivated charges.
He was released a decade later in December 2013 before fleeing Russia and becoming a number one critic of the president.
Khodorkovsky flatly denied the allegations of plotting to topple Putin.
Chatting with The Telegraph, he described them as ‘lies’, which show the Kremlin has ‘anxiety over the problem of power transition’.
If the Russian leader dies tomorrow, he can have no obvious successor.
Khodorkovsky said: ‘The international legitimacy of the Russian opposition could turn out to be a big think about the event of a sudden power transition.’
Putin is subsequently keen to discredit and intimidate the Anti-War Committee, a corporation founded by a few of Russia’s best-known dissidents.
Despite his criticism towards the Russian opposition, Osechkin admitted that the Kremlin is ‘advancing on all fronts to criminalise the work of anti-war activists’.
He warned that that is ‘one other wave of repression geared toward terror and intimidation’ and added: ‘Not everyone within the West understands the character of this, and in lots of countries members of the Anti-War Committee have already faced or will soon face problems.’
Various Russian dissidents who protested against the war in Ukraine and fled their homeland have had their visas denied for the reason that start of the full-scale invasion.
Osechkin added: ‘Some might be denied visas, others can have their bank accounts closed, and a few won’t be granted protection as a result of the mountain of lies and accusations.
‘The safety services are doing every little thing possible to intimidate people contained in the perimeter – and it’s working.’
Earlier this 12 months, Metro spoke with Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza – also one among the founders of the targeted Anti-War Committee – who warned that such European sanctions on anti-war activists only help Putin’s regime.
Considered to be one among the surviving faces of Russia’s beleaguered opposition, he was freed last August in the largest exchange of prisoners for the reason that Cold War.
Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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