Protestors at the "Russia against Putin" march in Berlin, Germany, 1 March 2025. Photo: Novaya Gazeta Europe
Prominent members of Russia’s political opposition in exile including Yulia Navalnaya, Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza, led a march in Berlin on Saturday calling for an end to the war in Ukraine and the release of all political prisoners in Russia.
Protesters marched from Potsdamer Platz to the Russian embassy near the Brandenburg Gate, with many demonstrators holding signs featuring images of activists imprisoned in Russia on political charges, including journalist Antonina Favorskaya, former Moscow local councillor Alexey Gorinov, and Arseny Turbin, Russia’s youngest political prisoner.
According to the Anti-Corruption Foundation, which was set up by late opposition leader Alexey Navalny, some 3,500 people attended the demonstration, though independent Russian news outlet Agentstvo estimated the turnout to be in the hundreds.
Speaking at the event, Yashin said that the duty of Russian soldiers was to “defend their homeland, not to be occupiers on foreign land” and stressed that the war should end “not with a Munich-style conspiracy or a deal, but with a just peace — with security guarantees for Ukraine and Putin behind bars".
In response to recent comments by US President Donald Trump, who in February labelled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator”, Yashin told the crowd that the blame for starting the war could not “be shifted from the aggressor to the victim” and called on Europe to take “responsibility for its own security, for the free world and for the future that awaits us all”.
Also in attendance were several dozen supporters of the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion, two groups involved in fighting alongside the Armed Forces of Ukraine against the Russian army.
The presence of the Russian Volunteer Corps at the rally sparked controversy in the buildup to Saturday’s event after its founder, Denis Kapustin, warned that members of the group could physically attack marchers who carried Russian tricolour flags.
"We’re not 'Navalny fans' or liberals, so we’ll hit first", Kapustin wrote in a now-deleted post on Telegram earlier this week. In response, Yashin said the group’s representatives had assured organisers that they would refrain from violence and emphasised that security measures were in place to maintain order during the demonstration.
