The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has approved the composition of its first platform of Russian democratic forces. Instead of the 12 seats initially discussed, it includes 15 members. Under PACE’s criteria, they must be public figures who support ending Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and restoring democracy in Russia. A separate quota was reserved for representatives of small and Indigenous peoples, and the platform is due to rotate after one year.
The best-known members include Vladimir Kara-Murza, Natalia Arno, Dmitry Gudkov, Garry Kasparov, Oleg Orlov, Lyubov Sobol and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. After the lineup was announced, Kara-Murza told Novaya-Europe that his priority would be support for political prisoners: in his words, thousands of people in Russia are jailed for political reasons, and five members of the platform have themselves been imprisoned.
According to Kara-Murza, the platform should give a voice to Russian citizens who do not believe Sergey Lavrov and Maria Zakharova speak for them, and it should also help prepare for a future post-Putin transfer of power.
Gudkov argues that work in PACE provides access to formal international mechanisms and says such status could help address practical problems faced by exiles, including visas and bank accounts. Kasparov has likewise spoken about the difficulties Russians abroad face because of sanctions-related restrictions and document problems, stressing that the new platform should raise these issues.
The platform also includes representatives of Indigenous peoples, among them Ruslan Kutayev, Kuznetsova, Batlay Matenov, Pylaeva and Pavel Sulyandziga. They say they want to discuss Russia’s future, ethnic discrimination, and cultural and linguistic identity, and to ensure that Europe’s debate about Russia is not shaped only by a Moscow-centered view.