Council of Europe names Russian opposition politicians for its Platform for Dialogue

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has approved a list of participants in its Platform for Dialogue with Russian democratic forces, it announced on Monday.

PACE voted to create a platform composed of members of Russia’s exiled political opposition in October, to enable the body “a more structured engagement” with politicians who were forced into exile following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The list includes high-profile opposition figures including Memorial chairperson Oleg Orlov, Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Open Russia founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Free Russia Foundation president Natalia Arno, as well as politicians Dmitry Gudkov, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Garry Kasparov and Lyubov Sobol. 

One source told Novaya Europe that Sobol’s inclusion on the list showed that PACE wanted to make the platform as representative as possible, even if the Russian political émigrés themselves hadn’t been able to agree on a final list.

“Sobol has traditionally been associated with [Alexey Navalny’s] Anti-Corruption Foundation and its involvement is a nod towards attempting to improve relations with the group,” the source said.

Five representatives of Russia’s indigenous peoples have also been included on the list, including Udege activist Pavel Sulyandziga, the founder of Batani, the International Indigenous Fund for Development and Solidarity, which has been a long-time advocate for Indigenous peoples of the Russian North, Siberia and Far East, and has been deemed an “undesirable organisation” by the Russian government.

The Assembly is due to hold a final vote approving the make-up of the platform on Monday afternoon. Russia itself withdrew from the Council of Europe in March 2022, shortly after launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and ceased to be party to the European Convention on Human Rights in September of the same year.