Ilya Yashin is now officially the leader of the Russian opposition in exile – and infighting has already begun. A longtime ally told Euronews he fears Yashin could become a 'mini-Putin.' Is the new party already facing its first major test?
Delegates of the new Russian opposition party Peaceful Russia gathered in Berlin on June 12 and 13 for a party congress to adopt the party program. A total of 126 delegates were invited.
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There was heated debate over who should become the party leader. Russian opposition politician and former political prisoner Ilya Yashin was elected chairman with around 60 percent of the vote, Igor Kachetkov, a human rights activist and member of the organizing committee, told Euronews.
The party congress lasted about twelve hours. During the meeting, the party changed its name from Peaceful Forces of Russia to Peaceful Russia, Kachetkov said. The word "Forces" was removed to avoid associations with repression in Russia and the war in Ukraine.
Delegate: "The ability to inspire people is most important"
Many place high hopes in Yashin and his ability to unite supporters.
"Ilya is an experienced politician. He is a gifted speaker. That is very important because a politician who cannot communicate will not be able to work with others," party delegate Alexander Archagov told Euronews.
"He has a roadmap. I like his ideological principles. But the ability to inspire people is the most important thing—in Russia and abroad," Archagov added.
Yashin: "Our main target audience is in Russia"
"We have taken on this challenge," Yashin told Euronews. "It is very difficult because we are based in Europe. But we plan to work in Russia in the future, and that is very risky."
"We will appeal to Russian society and work with people discreetly. It is clear that people in Russia cannot cooperate with us without risks. We take that into account. But our main target audience is in Russia. Millions of our supporters are there", he said.
"Our party program and political message are aimed first and foremost at people in Russia who have no voice. We want to be their voice."
Yashin acknowledged that the party cannot operate legally in Russia. However, he pointed to historical examples of opposition movements that emerged in exile and later came to power.
The best-known example is Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party. Before the 1917 Russian Revolution, many of its leaders lived abroad and organized political activities from exile.
After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks became the ruling party of the Soviet Union. Under Lenin and later Joseph Stalin, the country developed into an authoritarian one-party state.
There are no examples in Russian history of democratic opposition parties returning from exile and later governing Russia.
Whether Yashin's party can become the first remains uncertain. Internal tensions have already emerged, according to delegate Maxim Reznik.
Reznik is one of Russia's best-known liberal opposition politicians. A former member of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, he became known as a sharp Kremlin critic. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he left the country and now lives in exile.
Reznik: "I do not want Yashin to turn into a mini-Putin"
Reznik has worked alongside Yashin for years. Both have long opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, Reznik fears the party could repeat past mistakes.
"I do not want Yashin to turn into a mini-Putin. Unfortunately, I see my hope fading that he will not prove to be a self-centered Moscow political boss. The opposition already has too many of those," Reznik told Euronews.
"We need someone who can unite different people across different regions. Someone who treats them as equals. At the moment, I don't see that in him."
"I think Ilya has chosen the wrong formula. Essentially, he is trying to recreate a party modeled on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union," Reznik said. "We should stop making the same mistakes."
The Russian opposition is widely seen as fragmented. According to Russia expert Andreas Heinemann-Grüder of the University of Bonn, it has long struggled with leadership issues. Competition and personal ambitions have repeatedly prevented opposition unity.
He argues that the new party must learn from the experience of Yabloko, the liberal opposition party founded in 1993.
To succeed, the party must be decentralized, reflect Russia's ethnic diversity, and represent the Russian diaspora across the EU. The ability to influence developments inside Russia from exile remains very limited, Heinemann-Grüder told Euronews.