Russian opposition members signed a joint declaration in Berlin

Russian opposition activists who gathered on April 29-30 for a meeting in Berlin, following its results, signed a document called “Declaration of Russian Democratic Forces”. In the evening on Sunday, the website “Echo of Moscow” and oppositionist Ilya Ponomarev published it.

In the declaration, the “strategic goals” of the Russian opposition are called “the cessation of aggression against Ukraine and the creation of a free, legal, federal Russia.” “For this, we consider it necessary to strengthen the coordination of our actions,” the document says.

The main positions in the declaration are the withdrawal of Russian troops from all occupied territories, the liquidation of “Putin’s regime”, which is called illegitimate in the text, the rejection of imperial policies, the release of political prisoners and prisoners of war. “We express our solidarity with the Russians who, despite the monstrous repressions, have the courage to speak out from anti-Putin and anti-war positions,” the document says. It also says that the signatories “abstain from public conflicts in anti-war and democratic movements.”

The list of those who signed the declaration was not published at the time of publication of the news. The “Echo of Moscow” publication lists several names, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Dmitry Gudkov, Yevgenia Chirykova, Yevgeny Chichvarkin. Ponomarev notes that the document was also signed by a number of members of his organization “Congress of People’s Deputies”.

The meeting was held on the initiative of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and a number of other oppositionists living in exile. Alexei Navalny’s supporters did not participate in it.

On the same date, a human rights conference in memory of Yury Schmidt, a Russian human rights defender and lawyer who died in 2013, was held in Berlin. It was attended by human rights defenders, lawyers, civil activists, journalists, representatives of the Russian-speaking diaspora, and German politicians.