2024-08-05 15:52:47
The reaction to the first public comments by some of those freed in last week’s historic prisoner swap, including those who thought they were likely to die in prison for opposing Moscow’s invasion, starkly shows the gulf between Kyiv and Russia’s anti-war opposition.
“I don’t believe in any good Russians anymore,” said Ukrainian lawmaker Iryna Gerashchenko, who was part of the team that negotiated with Russia after Moscow-backed separatists took up arms in the east in 2014.
“My hunch was right,” she added in a Telegram message, criticizing comments made by Russian opposition politicians Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin.
V. Kara-Murza, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for “treason” and other charges, suggested that the West should consider whether its policy of sanctions against Moscow was not “unfair and counterproductive” because it hit not only President Vladimir Putin and his elite, but and ordinary Russian citizens.
The head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration, Andrijus Yermak, was one of those who answered him.
“The common goal of all Russians should be to free Russia from the mad dictator Putin and his regime, not to fight sanctions,” he said. “Sanctions should only be tightened until Russia continues its armed aggression… Sanctions are what hold back the regime’s military machine.”
Ukrainian analysts said they feared that prominent Russian dissidents could influence Western politics by creating contradictions with Kyiv’s position.
“It will be difficult to push for tougher sanctions when symbols of Russian liberalism are openly calling for easing them for ‘ordinary Russians,'” said Marija Zolkina, a researcher at the London School of Economics.
V. Kara-Murza and other representatives of the Russian opposition say that global sanctions fuel the Kremlin’s internal propaganda.
“Fight for us”
Ilya Yashin, freed from an 8.5-year prison sentence he received for condemning the massacre by Russian forces in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, also caused a stir by calling on Ukraine to open peace talks.
“It is necessary to sit down at the negotiating table,” I. Yashin told the Russian independent Dozhd television. “I understand the irritation of Ukrainians when the question is raised in this way, but … the situation has reached an impasse, a bloody impasse, because people are dying on both sides.”
Kyiv currently opposes direct talks with Moscow and says Moscow will use any ceasefire or pause in fighting to rearm for a new offensive.
Following an angry reaction in Ukraine, Yashin reiterated his opposition to Russia’s “criminal, barbaric” invasion of Ukraine in a two-hour YouTube video the next day.
“I sacrificed two years of my life for telling the truth about the war in Ukraine,” he told Ukrainians, “I am not your enemy.”
The dispute reveals how much opinion in Ukraine about the Russian opposition movement has changed in more than two years of war.
In February 2022, V. Zelensky still had hopes that Russia’s internal anti-war fifth column could overthrow V. Putin or at least force him to change his mind about the invasion.
The day after Moscow invaded, he addressed thousands of Russians who had taken to the streets to protest the war.
“We see you. It means you hear us… Fight for us, fight against this war,” he said in Russian.
“I need more information”
After more than two years of war in Ukraine, few sympathize with the Russian opposition, especially with its claims that hidden waves of anti-war sentiment are just waiting to be unleashed.
While no one doubts the anti-war sentiments of people like Kara-Murza and Yashin, “they need to understand the sincerity of Ukraine’s anger,” said Sam Greene, professor of Russian politics at King’s College London.
“The nuances of the Russian opposition’s arguments about sanctions and Russian public opinion will not bring security to Ukraine, and Ukrainians rightly worry that focusing on dreams of a Russian democracy will distract from helping Ukraine win the war,” he said on the X platform.
Responding to the criticism, Kara-Murza told the BBC: “I need more information” and agreed that the Russian public was partly “responsible for what the Putin regime is doing”.
“Putin cannot be allowed to win this war. Ukraine must win, and for that to happen, there should be more support from Western countries,” he said.
2024-08-05 15:52:47