After Navalny, Russians abroad are at a pivotal moment in quest to remove Putin

The Russian presidential vote is over and, pre‐ dictably, Vladimir Putin is about to begin yet another six years in power. But for his opponents abroad it is anything but business as usual.

The absence of credible opponents on the ballot, and the imprisonment of Russia's most consequential opposi‐ tion figures, had already un‐ derlined Putin's refusal to tol‐ erate any hint of dissent at home.

But the death of Alexei Navalny in prison just weeks ahead of the election was in‐ terpreted by Russians in the diaspora as a definitive sign that it is for them, now, to lead the movement against Putin from the outside.

"People recognize … is that [this] might be a turning point," said Garry Kasparov, a one-time world chess cham‐ pion and longtime political activist who now lives in the U.S. He left Russia a decade ago after realizing that prodemocracy activism at home under Putin was increasingly futile and dangerous.

As though to further un‐ derline the danger of oppos‐ ing Putin even from afar, ear‐ lier this month Kasparov was added to a Russian list of "terrorists and extremists."

WATCH | What's next for the Russian opposition?

In the wake of Navalny's loss, and as Putin alarmingly puts the whole of Russia on a war footing, opposition fig‐ ures abroad find themselves at a pivotal moment in their quest to unseat Putin. An ominous turn is seen by some in the opposition also as an opportunity; a catalyst to unify their ranks, and per‐ haps even spark more sub‐ stantive support for their cause in Western capitals.

In an interview with CBC's The National in Washington ahead of the election, Kas‐ parov said he's adamant that defeating Putin begins with Russian defeat in Ukraine. In the interim, he said, Russians abroad must become the ar‐ chitects of the post-Putin fu‐ ture.

The question is whether the opposition abroad can, or even should, agree on a way forward. And in either case, who if anyone would lead the outsiders' charge.

Navalny's network-in-ex‐ ile, the Anti-Corruption Foun‐ dation, based in Lithuania, is still grieving but still intact. Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny's wife, is seen to be his natural successor, and has implied she would carry the mantle.

"She inherits not just his moral capital, but his team," said Ekatarina Schulmann, a Russian political scientist and professor who hosts a politi‐ cal talk show on YouTube from Germany. "If they will work together, which is most likely, then she may become a political force in her own right."

There is an array of dis‐ united Russian opposition groups and individuals in the diaspora, including figures like Kasparov and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a business‐ man and political activist once imprisoned by Putin, now in exile in London.

Navalny's organization is still best placed to rally the disparate groups, but it has a history of working indepen‐ dently.

"In my opinion, every mo‐ ment that the opposition [does] not come together is a missed opportunity," said Maxim Katz, an independent Russian politician convicted in absentia of spreading "fake news" about the Russ‐ ian military.

Before he was charged, Katz left Russia with his family to Israel. From Tel Aviv, he hosts a YouTube channel aimed at Russians at home, in which, among other com‐ mentary on current events, he is critical of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Katz has previously clashed with other opposi‐ tion figures over a proposal to create an opposition coali‐ tion ahead of the election. Even Navalny himself once tweeted at him "go to hell with your coalition."

Katz wanted to build a coalition that would reach in‐ to Russia using social media to try to sway the Russian electorate ahead of the vote.

Kasparov too dismissed the idea as "wishful thinking."

"The only way to move … the needle of public opinion is Ukrainian success," he said. "Without it nothing will happen."

WATCH | Ukraine is our chance, says Kasparov:

"That's our chance, be‐ cause Russians could tolerate any hardship if the war is going well. They never forgive their leaders for losing the war."

Kasparov says Russians opposed to the war should have a role in supporting the effort to help Ukraine, that Western countries should make it easier for Putin's crit‐ ics to leave - by easing their access to visas - so they could deplete Putin's war ma‐ chine and plan for a new Rus‐ sia from abroad.

They should then begin to build, not quite a govern‐ ment in exile, but the "foun‐ dations of a new Russia" that provides an alternative for those opposed to Putin, said Kasparov.

"Yeah, he can evade sanc‐ tions. He can find … supply from Iran, China, North Ko‐ rea. He cannot replace 100,000 engineers and com‐ puter exiles. So give them a chance to leave," he said.

The model he cited would be something similar to the way the Free French were hosted and allowed to flourish in the U.K. during the

Second World War. It's not yet clear who might play the role of the U.K. in modern times.

Some Western nations, like Canada, have most re‐ cently expressed support for the Russian opposition by im‐ posing new sanctions in the wake of Navalny's death. Canada targeted senior Russ‐ ian government officials in‐ volved in the violation of Navalny's "human rights, his cruel punishment and ulti‐ mately, his death," according to a statement from Canada's foreign affairs minister.

WATCH | Dictators, coups and natural deaths:

But there is more that Western governments can do, including providing oppo‐ sition figures a safe space in which to operate, says one European lawmaker.

"It is up to us to support those who are in danger, em‐ power those who are coura‐ geous enough to say 'we do not want to be part of the so‐ ciety as it is now there,'" Sergey Lagodinsky, a German member of the European Parliament who left Russia as a child, said from Berlin.

He met Navalny while the two of them were on a fel‐ lowship at Yale in 2010.

It is otherwise up to Russ‐ ian opposition figures, di‐ vided as they may be, to de‐ cide the best way forward, he said. The "plurality of opposi‐ tion of voices from Russia" has to be respected, he ad‐ ded.

"That's where we as Euro‐ pean politicians, are doing our best to enable them to work together."

Opposition figures abroad do not discount the role of those at home, but Katz says they recognize it is simply easier for them to operate and "normalize" conversation about a better future.

Katz sees part of his role abroad is to counter the pre‐ dominantly pro-Putin Russ‐ ian media, and persuade Russians, a large proportion of whom still support Putin, to turn against him.

"We need to convince the Russian people that his lead‐ ership is not good for us. This is the only way," said Katz, whose YouTube channel has more than two million follow‐ ers.

"We need to put our ef‐ forts here. And I try to do it."

Meanwhile, Schulmann points out that, throughout history, "dictators are not dis‐ lodged from outside and they are not toppled by opposi‐ tion. They are much more of‐ ten killed by their own imme‐ diate surroundings. They fall victim to coups… or they die natural death."

But, she says, Russians abroad still have a role in saying outside what cannot be said inside.

"Our audience is predomi‐ nantly in Russia, and it is growing and is not diminish‐ ing," said Schulmann. Though not a political actor, but rather a political analyst, she hosts a popular political talk show on YouTube, which has a million followers "pre‐ dominately" in Russia.

Last year, after she left to take up a fellowship in Ger‐ many, she was still labelled a "foreign agent" by the Russ‐ ian government, and as a re‐ sult she hasn't felt it would be safe to return.

"There is a demand and if there is a demand, then there is a duty of answering those people who have no one else left."