The Kremlin’s enemy Khodorkovsky considers the conflict in the anti-Putin bloc “natural”

Kremlin critic and former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky believes it is “natural” that the Russian opposition is so divided in the campaign against President Vladimir Putin.

Russia is in the third year of its invasion of Ukraine, internal repression is widespread and a weakened Russian opposition has been forced into exile, but Khodorkovsky told AFP he was determined to continue supporting the coalition against Putin.

Plagued by years of internal conflicts, the new scandals have further divided various movements and individuals that are theoretically pursuing the same goal: the end of Putin’s rule.

The death of Alexei Navalny – the only person who came close to uniting the movement – in unclear circumstances in prison this year was a serious blow to the cause.

Khodorkovsky told AFP that while “putting an end to Putin’s regime” was the goal of all opposition factions, conflicts within the movement were normal.

“Of course, there are discussions, conflicts and sometimes even scandals between different parts of the Russian opposition,” Khodorkovsky said this week in an interview in Warsaw.

“But this is natural in a situation where there is an unknown amount of time left to defeat the regime,” he added.

Khodorkovsky spoke out weeks after his role as one of the main figures of the opposition’s divisions came back into the spotlight.

Navalny’s Anticorruption Foundation (FBK) accused a businessman linked to Khodorkovsky – Leonid Nevzlin – of ordering a hammer attack on one of the leading representatives of its foundation, Leonid Volkov, who lives in Lithuania.

Khodorkovsky firmly denies the claims that he was aware of Nevzlin’s plans.

He emphasized that although the opposition has different views, it “acts in a fairly consolidated way when it comes to supporting Ukraine’s efforts and fighting the Putin regime.”

“As much as people are ready for”

In the latest twist, Poland last month arrested a Russian with ties to Nevzlin – Anatoly Blinov – accused of involvement in the hammer attack.

“The person who presented himself as an ally turned out to be an enemy,” Navalny’s team told about the whole case in a long video.

Khodorkovsky expressed shock at the allegations. On Thursday, a day after his interview with AFP, he announced that he had testified before Polish prosecutors handling the case.

Once the richest man in Russia and the head of the Yukos oil company, 61-year-old Khodorkovsky now lives in London, from where he finances the Open Russia group banned by Moscow.

Dressed in black and wearing thin glasses, he said he was committed to building “a coalition to the extent that people are ready” to fight the regime that imprisoned him for a decade in 2003.

Internal fighting could make the opposition – already silenced by Kremlin censorship – even more inaudible in Russia.

In another sign of division, several Russian political prisoners were released this summer as part of an East-West exchange, but they have since run separate campaigns.

“Mentally Difficult”

But Khodorkovsky said he saw potential in anti-Putin Russians who fled their country to protest the invasion, hoping to one day return home.

“A significant part of Russians today, even when they are in the West, even in relatively comfortable conditions, still want – as soon as the opportunity arises – to return to Russia to do something to change the situation,” he said.

“As soon as Putin’s regime falls. They will do everything in their power to help the new democratic Russia.”

While focusing on repression at home, the Russian opposition is struggling with its position on Ukraine, with many Ukrainian and Western voices accusing it of not doing enough to support a country devastated by Moscow’s invasion.

Khodorkovsky said building bridges between the Russian opposition and Ukrainians “is difficult from a purely psychological point of view, because many Ukrainians have the impression that all Russians are like that.”

He said his mission was to “convince the West and our Ukrainian friends that not all Russians are like this.” Far from all Russians support Putin.

Regardless of the outcome of the war, he stated that neither side could change its place on the map.

“Russia will continue to be Ukraine’s neighbor and we still need to find solutions that will allow us to live normally in peace, with fair and internationally recognized borders.”