Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said yesterday it had opened criminal proceedings against exiled businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other prominent Kremlin critics, accusing them of plotting a violent takeover of power.
The FSB said it was investigating all 22 members of the Russian Anti-War Committee - a group of politicians, businessmen, journalists, lawyers, artists and academics who live abroad and oppose Russia's war in Ukraine.
In addition to Khodorkovsky, the group includes prominent dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov and former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov. The FSB statement referred to the group as “Khodorkovsky and his accomplices,” implying that the service sees him as the main figure.
The move came less than two weeks after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) - a human rights forum that brings together lawmakers from 46 European countries - announced it was creating a "platform for dialogue" with Russian democratic forces in exile, in which Khodorkovsky said he intended to participate.
Moscow left the Council of Europe in 2022, while facing expulsion for its invasion of Ukraine, Reuters recalls.
In an interview with the British agency, Mikhail Khodorkovsky dismissed the accusations - including those that the Anti-War Committee financed and recruited Ukrainian paramilitary units - as "absolutely false." He said the committee's activities were exclusively public, peaceful and humanitarian in nature.
He said the Council of Europe initiative hit a "sensitive spot" for President Vladimir Putin, as it brings together opponents of the Kremlin who could one day rule the country after his rule ends.
"This alternative point of legitimacy represents the greatest danger to him and his regime," Khodorkovsky said. "What this shows us is that this very approach - building relationships between international institutions and the consolidated Russian opposition - is the right one."
The FSB statement signals Moscow's determination to continue to pressure Putin's exiled opponents, to portray them as a threat to the state, and to oppose any attempt by the West to provide them with legitimacy.
Khodorkovsky, a former oil tycoon and once the richest man in Russia, spent ten years in a Siberian prison on fraud charges, which he and many Western countries claimed were politically motivated, before being pardoned in 2013 and leaving Russia.
Since 2022, Khodorkovsky has positioned himself as one of the leading figures of the exiled Russian opposition, which opposes Putin. Immediately after the outbreak of war, the Russian authorities declared him a “foreign agent.”
Khodorkovsky, who now lives in London, said the latest charges were a "black mark" by the FSB. "Without a doubt, such a decision increases the level of risk for anyone who decides they are ready to be an alternative to the Putin regime," he said.
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