Garry Kasparov on the Creation of the Representation of Russian Democratic Forces in PACE
The fact that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has chosen to build relations with the Russian democratic opposition is, without a doubt, an extremely important event. Moreover, this is not merely about establishing contacts with the opposition as such, nor about cooperating with any single organization representing anti-war Russians. This is about forming a representation of Russian citizens who support Ukraine — to varying degrees, but who all unequivocally recognize its territorial integrity. In other words, to the question “Whose is Crimea?” their answer must be clear and unambiguous: Crimea is Ukrainian. The inability to give a direct and straightforward answer to that question automatically excludes a person from this representation.
It is important to emphasize that this development would not have been possible without the participation of the Free Russia Forum. The Ukrainian delegation to PACE initially reacted quite sensitively — and rightly so — to the appearance of certain individuals who held ambiguous positions regarding Crimea and the war. The Forum’s involvement at the discussion stage played a key role in overcoming this resistance.
We now have an opportunity to begin forming a new political matrix — what I call a “Russian Taiwan.” A structure has emerged that can provide support to a large number of Russian citizens. It may not produce tangible results immediately, but at least we now have a foothold. A very important step has been taken. It doesn’t solve all problems or close all questions — on the contrary, it opens new ones. But without this step, things would be incomparably worse.
