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On January 29, 2026, Meduza opens with the following post a window to Russia.
The Office of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has confirmed the composition of the so-called “Platform of Russian Democratic Forces”. This is intended to enter into dialogue with European parliamentarians – and, as those involved hope, to represent the interests of anti-war Russians. The delegation was actually supposed to consist of 12 people, but now there are 15. Ten of them come from the “democratic forces” and five from “indigenous peoples and national minorities”.
According to European officials’ plans, the Russian delegation – which includes Vladimir Kara-Mursa, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Garry Kasparov and Yekaterina Shulman – will “help strengthen democratic forces in Russia” and “achieve a lasting and just peace in Ukraine.”
Many candidates who have applied to take part in the platform believe that the interests of anti-war Russians can be represented on an international level. Of course, there are also skeptics: They believe that the delegation will create a favorable image of the Russian opposition for the West without actually solving any problems.
Medusa reported on English and up Russianhow the work with the PACE platform is going, why you are arguing about it – and what hopes are associated with it.
PACE is an advisory body in which representatives from EU member states and nearby countries – such as Türkiye, Serbia and Armenia – are represented. Russia used to be a member too. In 2022, this participation was suspended. This wasn’t the first time this happened: after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Russian delegation was excluded from PACE. However, she was allowed to return in 2019.
In October 2025, PACE decided to launch a platform for cooperation with anti-war Russians. The criteria for the candidates include, among other things, that they are public figures who actively oppose the “totalitarian and neo-imperial regime in the Russian Federation”.
Participant Vladimir Kara-Mursa hopes that the PACE platform could be a first step towards justice for a transition period in Russia. In practice, this means supporting the recently created “Tribunal for Putin,” which will deal with collecting evidence of war crimes committed by the Russian army in Ukraine.
How this platform will work can probably be judged by the activities of the Belarusian representation headed by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who was admitted to the Assembly in September 2020. This is not an official delegation with voting rights, but a group of civil society representatives who submit proposals to PACE to support Belarusian political émigrés in Europe. For example, Tikhanovskaya’s team is trying to use PACE to solve the problem of issuing passports to Belarusians in EU countries. So far without success.
The Belarusian platform has an important advantage over the Russian one: PACE recognizes Tichanovskaya as the leader of the democratic forces in Belarus because she took part in the 2020 presidential elections – and apparently even won them. There is no such personality among the Russian oppositionists.
In addition, after the adoption of the resolution creating the platform, a new split emerged within the Russian opposition.
However, the Kremlin reacted quite strongly to the creation of the platform. Criminal proceedings have been initiated against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and 22 other members of the “Russian Anti-War Committee” – this association is particularly active in fighting for the formation of a structure within PACE: they are accused of founding a “terrorist organization” and participating in it, as well as “attempting a violent takeover of power”.
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