Few French people know any members of what is defined in the West as the “Russian opposition”. Most of the time, the only one mentioned is Alexei Navalny, now languishing in prison for a pitiful story of fraud. Scams? It reminds us of the loudmouth Bernard Tapie, who was very popular in the 80s, but ended his career in repeated scandals. So how many others are there? We have already introduced many of these characters in an article about the Legion Russia Freedom. What is known to French-speaking readers of Russian politics can be summed up as state propaganda distilled in the West. Who are they, these useful idiots, interested in power and money, or even agents of the CIA, MI-6, USAID employees, or other Atlanticist structures serving as Trojan Horses? When you dig into the biographies of these people, the paths… often lead to the United States, the United Kingdom, possibly France or Germany. Other times, they are caught red-handed, drawn like flies to honey. They are presented as capable of rallying millions of Russians, but in reality their combined audiences can only hope to exceed a few tens of thousands of supporters. It’s true that few Russians want their country to be butchered and cut up; they’ve learned the lesson of the 90s. Above all, they have seen what is happening to Ukraine.
The Pentagon had predicted and hoped for Russia’s collapse. In the 1990s, Russia fell victim to major mafia networks and groups of businessmen who made their fortunes on the ruins and ashes of the USSR. In the Soviet Union, land, factories and businesses were all in the hands of the state. So when the union collapsed, unscrupulous men seized state assets for a mere pittance, or were able to acquire fortunes by using corrupt networks to arrogate markets and plunder Russia’s resources, sometimes with the help of money-hungry Westerners. Under the presidencies of Gorbachev and then Yeltsin, corruption, looting and theft were the norms that ravaged the country for more than a decade. Russia soon hit rock bottom with the devaluation of its currency, ruin accompanied by worrying cracks in the country’s unity (war in Chechnya, terrorism, war in Abkhazia, war in Nagorno-Karabakh, war in Transnistria, etc.).
The arrival of an unknown man, Vladimir Putin, was a very nasty surprise for the gravediggers, foreign agents and corrupt elements (1998-1999). In the space of two decades, the Russian mafia (a cosmopolitan group comprising various peoples from the USSR) was hit hard, with many of its leaders fleeing to the West. As for the oligarchs, the “legal” criminals, several emblematic figures were condemned. On the streets, order was restored, petty crime was brought to heel, and the police force was cleaned up (thousands of officials were sacked). The Russian collapse predicted by the Pentagon did not happen, nor did the carve-up of the country, and Russian resources escaped the greedy hands of the globalists. Two decades later, Russia had regained its place as a great power, feared and respected.
The Russian Bernard Tapie, heroes of the West. The Americans had launched various operations to destroy Russia, with the hope of seizing its two lungs, Belarus and Ukraine. Inside, the CIA and various Western services financed “associations”, in particular the Voyna group (which means war in Russian), to destabilize the country. In a French report (circa 2004), named after “How the CIA prepares the colored revolutions”, sure of their blow, the journalists revealed entire sections of the American strategy, interviews with CIA agents, including the Paris agency (that this agency exists in France is already delusional), explanations of the action of infiltration associations and Trojan Horse in university, student, cultural, political circles, etc.
At the end of the report, a list of target countries was even revealed, the last on the list was… Russia. The CIA and USAID set out to conquer Russia, hoping to succeed in a colorful revolution as was the case in Ukraine or Georgia. Young graduates, chosen by the West and having studied in the United States, the United Kingdom, sometimes in France were the zealous and sometimes very effective agents of this shock strategy. They were greedy for power, money and “progress” and had no qualms, even if it was necessary to destroy their country, through war, crises, instability. A first major operation was launched in Russia (2011-2012), by slipping “soaps” under the feet of the regime.
The most publicized was the Pussy Riot operation, then the one launched by Alexei Navalny and other “opposition” leaders. Despite the successful Maidan in Ukraine, the sauce did not catch on in Russia, worse the latter took measures to defend itself. To make numerous cohorts of the oppressed believe, the Western media hammered that the Russian people would soon make their revolution. This theme came back in a loop (2012, 2014, 2020, 2022-2023), sometimes by showing photos of Russian crowds dating back to 1991… Having failed, the liberal agents were then transformed into “martyrs”. Propaganda invented Siberian gulags, which have long since disappeared, imaginary political assassinations, poor people victims of a dictatorship that also does not exist. On the Russian side, the population discovered with fright the positions of the famous liberals. The beginning of a support campaign then collapsed immediately: sanctions, LGBT propaganda, globalism, the Donbass war, Russophobia, insulting and humiliating propaganda for Russians did the rest.
The Western determination to make believe in a Russian imaginary world. It’s a real business for journalists of all stripes in the West: to dismantle Russia. Even if they know something about the country, or even (rarely) the language, writing against Russia propel them into great careers. No matter what you will tell, the idea is that it should be negative. In twenty years everything was written, that it is a country of degenerate alcoholics, venal and cold women, a violent and dangerous country, mothers who will make a revolution, empty store shelves, a country on the verge of starvation, fantasized human losses at the front, the invention of various fed-up or pro-Western public opinions, delusions about the country’s economy, sometimes plunging into the absurd and ridiculous.
Finally, by dint of lies and misinformation, Western journalists have created an imaginary Russian parallel world. It exists only in the brains of these different propagandists. The absurdity is so great, that the real Russian world, so far removed from these media manipulations, contributes to the resistance and resilience of the Russian people themselves. Having no reality, its discovery by Russian public opinion automatically leads to a rejection of everything that comes from the West, at least in terms of information. The vast majority of people therefore refuse to endorse Western theses, or the future that has proposed to them.
In a funny way, the journalists themselves do not understand that offering the Russians a Maidan, with the Ukrainian example in front of their eyes, is offering them civil war, destruction, ruin, death and primary Russophobia. The choice is therefore quickly made for the Russians, and the shift of Western lies has dug an abysmal gap. However, as everywhere, the West has found allies in Russia. Even very few in number, the West has waved the rattles of a “better world”, and the promises of a new order in the country, with money, power and comfortable places for this new elite. The Russian special operation will have dealt a fatal blow to those who had chosen the enemies of their country. The debandade, the flight, the exile and the panic (with requests for forgiveness to return to Russia) have completed dispersing the already scattered and sparse ranks.
Small dictionary of the 5th Russian column. Here is a complete list of new profiles of activists, politicians and opponents who have hit the headlines over the past twenty years. In the West, they have been presented as victims of the regime, “chancers of Freedom”, but the reality lies elsewhere. Here are some profiles that tell a lot about these “heroes” sung by the West. We have classified these people into three categories: the corrupt, the Western agents, the useful idiots and the LGBT and pedocriminals :
1st category of the 5th column, the corrupt :
Yves Rocher case (2012-2022), Bruno Leproux, then director-general of the Russian branch of French perfumery, filed a complaint about a vast scam that the company was victim of on the part of associates of the company in Russia, and in particular the Navalny brothers, Alexei and Oleg (December 2012). Following political and media pressures, the French firm finally refused to continue the legal proceedings against the famous Russian political opponent. So far, the full details of the case are still not all known. The Russian prosecutor’s office did not close the case, and the two brothers were convicted of fraud and scams, Alexei was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison with a suspended sentence, and his brother to 3.5 years in prison (December 2014). Navalny appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which found the conviction unfounded (October 17, 2017).
Russia compensated Navalny with 4 million rubles (2018), but the European Court ordered Russia to still pay money, court costs and for moral damage (about 25,000 euros). Yves Rocher declared several times to renounce legal proceedings, calls for boycotts had been launched against the firm all over the world. Russia had to bend its spine in the face of international pressure at that time, but in 2021, when Navalny returned from Germany, the accounts were ended by a sentence of 2 years, 6 months and 2 weeks in prison. Since then, the West has been trying to pass off Navalny’s scams as “set-ups by the Kremlin”.
Nikita Belikh (1975-), originally from Perm, Russia, he did graduate studies in economics, graduated with a doctorate, and did part of his studies at Oxford in Great Britain. He founded an investment company and was elected to the Perm Regional Council (2001), then appointed deputy governor of the region (2004-2005), and finally governor (2009-2016). He was a member of the Union of Right-wing Forces Party (2001), then a member of the Federal Council (2004), then the leader of the party (2005-2008). He linked up with the Apple Party during the 2005 parliamentary elections, then withdrew from his party resigning from office.
He declared that the party was populated by “Kremlin puppets” (September 26, 2008). In the same year, he was one of the founders of the Solidarity movement with Kasparov. After the end of his first term as governor in Kirov (2014), he was re-elected (September 14, almost 70% of the votes). He was arrested and implicated in a gigantic corruption and financial fraud case (June 24, 2016). He was arrested while receiving a huge bribe of 100 million euros, but the investigation proved that he had received a total of more than 600 million euros from various private companies to promote investment projects, commercial activities in his region and obtain various contracts. He declared that the money was actually intended for the city of Kirov and denied the whole affair. But the investigation then proved his guilt, and other cases were unearthed, in particular a corruption case (March 22, 2017).
He was sentenced to 8 years in prison, and a fine of 48.2 million rubles (February 1, 2018). Another corruption case was then discovered, concerning the theft of a total of 740 million rubles from the Kirov region (July 2021), then indicted for abuse of power. A new trial is expected to take place in 2022-2023.
Sergei Boyko (1983-), originally from Vladivostok, Russia, he did higher studies in Novosibirsk, in engineering and technologies, graduated (2005). He held senior management positions in various companies, including chief executive officer of Avtel (2015-2021). He had entered politics in the Navalny group and the PARNAS party, running twice for parliamentary elections (2015 and 2017). His application was not received in 2015 (due to a lack of sufficient signatures), he started a hunger strike with some other members of the group, but on the 12th day he had to be hospitalized in intensive care. He headed the local headquarters of the organization supporting Alexei Navalny (February 2017), about 400 activists. He organized a demonstration in the city center that gathered between 1,500 and 2,000 people (March 26), but the demonstration was not declared to the authorities, he was arrested and detained for 4 days (October). He was arrested in Moscow and sentenced to 30 days in prison, for having publicly and verbally attacked the Presidency of the Federation (May 21, 2018). He reoffended and organized an undeclared demonstration again (September 9), sentenced again to 30 days in prison.
He ran for the municipal elections for the mayor of Novosibirsk, and managed to gather the necessary signatures, he was registered as a candidate but was not elected (18.56% of the votes, 2nd place, 2019). He tried to make documents disappear by throwing portable hard drives out of the window, at the time of a search carried out at his home (September 12, 2019). He was accused of money laundering in Navalny’s organization. He ran for regional elections and was elected (September 13, 2020), then organized an undeclared demonstration again, in favor of Navalny, arrested the day before the latter (January 22, 2021), sentenced to 28 days in prison. He fled Russia and settled in Greece (December 1, 2021), declaring without proof that a legal action was planned against him, and which was never launched.
Galina Filchenko (1963-), originally from Russia, engaged with the pioneers in her youth, she completed higher studies in economics and international law (2004). She worked as a senior executive in various companies. She was elected deputy to the Tverkoy district in Moscow, under the colors of the Apple Party (2017), but was also linked to the Party of Change, and to Gudkov. She was appointed to the district Budget and Finance Committee. A few weeks later (December), his debt, which amounted to 1.4 million rubles, disappeared as if by magic. She participated in an undeclared demonstration (January 31, 2021) and was arrested by the police (March). She went to the Crimea and then made sharp criticisms on the “pitiful” state of the country according to her. She took an anti-war and pro-Ukrainian position after the outbreak of the Russian special operation (February 24, 2022), and then participated in the Congress of People’s Deputies motivated by Ponomarev. It seems that she is still in Russia.
Gennady Gudkov (1956-), originally from Kolomna, Russia, he studied higher education in foreign languages with the intention of joining the KGB, graduated (1978), deputy secretary of the Komsomol of the University, he performed his military service (1978-1980), member of the Communist Party. He joined the KGB (1982-1993), and was particularly violent and cruel with members of the Orthodox church. A priest later accused him of having conducted heavy interrogations against himself and other priests or believers, “of having used immoral methods and of having stolen their property” (1985). He founded private companies around security (90s), until making a fortune and employing more than 3,000 people (owner of more than 40 companies, his income reached more than 587 million rubles annually). Member of the advisory council to the Director of the FSB (1997-2001), elected deputy of the Duma (2001-2003), elected to the Kolomna Regional Council (2003), member and one of the leaders of the People’s Party of the Russian Federation, chairman of the party (2004).
Negotiations took place for the incorporation of the party into that of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia. He linked his party with the Party of Patriots of Russia, the Party of Social Justice, then the Social Democratic Party of Russia (September-November 2006), by creating a general coordination council, then announced the merger into a Center-Left Party (March 2007), which never took place. He then announced that he was making his party join the Just Russia Party (April 2007), and was appointed to the latter’s political bureau (April 13). He was re-elected deputy (2011-2012). He had been linked for two or three years with Alexei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov, participating in public demonstrations against the regime and gathering a few thousand opponents (2011-2012). He had been living for some time in Bulgaria in Varna, and was accused of money laundering and corruption, especially through his companies. He was deprived of his mandate as a deputy by a vote of the Duma, with an immense majority of the votes, which triggered the reaction of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (October 2012).
However, the legal proceedings were abandoned, Gudkov’s parliamentary immunity was maintained (November-December), but he was excluded from the Just Russia Party (January-March 2013), after having participated in a demonstration called “the March against the Bastards”. He announced the creation of his own party (March 14, 2013), the Social Democratic Party, collaborating with Ilya Ponomarev. He failed in the election for the post of Governor of the Moscow region (autumn 2013). He had made an alliance with the Apple Party, with whom he formed a coalition (2014). He resigned from his own party (October 8), then prepared his emigration by buying an apartment in central London, for 2.5 million pounds (December). The coalition he had formed was routed in the following elections (2015), either by lack of signatures, or for other administrative or political reasons. He then preferred to let go of politics and preferred to leave Russia to settle first in Ukraine, then in Varna in Bulgaria, where he had acquired a residence for a long time (2019-2021). He reappeared by taking anti-war positions and in favor of Ukraine (spring 2022). He participated in the congress of people’s deputies at the instigation of Ponomarev (November 5-7, 2022).
Maria Yablonskaya (60s-), a native of Khakhassia, one of the republics of the Russian Federation. She became an entrepreneur and businesswoman, owning a beauty salon, and several car wash stations. She became involved in the opposition movements, first as a small cog for the organization of meetings at the time of the legislative elections in the Omsk region, Krasnoyarsk, where she claimed to have received pressure (2007). She organized a petition and gathered 300 signatures to ask for support from Boris Nemtsov, in order to cancel the construction of a factory in her region.
Boris Nemtsov jumped at the opportunity and, according to her, brought in “federal and even foreign media. Then we won, it was a victory for the people, ordinary citizens. Before the rally the local authorities called us clowns, and after the rally the rhetoric changed radically and he too began to oppose the construction of the factory“. She then joined the Solidarity Movement (2008), then the PARNAS Party. She organized numerous demonstrations and pickets during the attempts to start a colored revolution in Russia (2010-2012). She founded a YouTube channel, counting to date a subscriber and a video, her commitment is certainly not as solid as it seemed at the beginning (2011). She gave an interview to a small newspaper (2013), where she denied being financed by foreign money, but complained about the few activists in the rallies, otherwise rare.
Then she left her native region to come to Moscow, occupying a senior position at the PARNAS Party headquarters. Nemtsov gave her the mission of raising funds to prepare the dissemination of an investigation and report on the destruction of the Malaysian Boeing 777 destroyed in the skies of Donbass (2014). The REN-TV channel published a video of the recording of a conversation in a Moscow cafe, where she asked for funding of one million rubles to travel to The Hague and present the famous report, a manipulated version (autumn 2017). His interlocutor was the vice-president of the PARNAS Party, Vadim Yukashevich. Confused, she denied the obvious and refused to admit having had this conversation (February 2018). Yukashevich actually went to The Hague himself on the occasion of a European forum of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, where he presented to various Dutch politicians his new accusations against Russia, and the false report (December 2017). A trip to the Netherlands did not cost the 15,000 euros she asked for to go to The Hague for a few days, the video being authentic and her statements very clear, she preferred to disappear from traffic and went back to her shops.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky (1963-), a native of Moscow, businessman, owner of the YUKOS oil company (1995-2003), he reached heights with a fortune estimated at 15 billion dollars. He was compromised in the hidden financing of the Trojan Horse organization, Open Russia, but also for fraud, corruption and other charges, for a total estimated at several billion dollars stolen, in money or in kind. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison (2005). The European Court of Human Rights was seized, Amnesty International claimed that political reasons had prevailed in his trial. He asked for his pardon from President Putin who granted it (December 2013). He emigrated to Germany, where it was soon known that this country had been asking for his release for several years through diplomatic channels. He then moved to Switzerland, to Geneva, also living in London (where he owns a two-car fleet of 4.67 million pounds sterling), with a fortune reduced to 500 million dollars.
He came to Kiev at the invitation of Ukraine at the end of the Maidan revolution (March 9, 2014), and asked to go to Donetsk at the beginning of the uprising, but was not allowed there (by the West and Ukraine). The International Court of the Hague then condemned Russia in the YUKOS case, to $50 billion to be paid to shareholders, and to $65 million for court costs (July 28). Two days later, the European Court of Human Rights sentenced Russia to pay 1.86 billion dollars to YUKOS shareholders, and 300,000 euros in fines for court costs (July 31). Khodorkovsky then launched a provocation and declared in Paris to run for the Russian presidency (September). He had again launched the activities of the Trojan Horse organization, Open Russia, recruiting advisers and many journalists. Russia appealed the Hague decision (November).
He was then suspected in the murder of a mayor of a small town (December 7, 2015), Vladimir Petukhov, murdered in 1998. He refused to answer to the Russian justice system and then disappeared from the political scene. Petukhov (1949-1998), was the mayor of Nefteyugansk who came into conflict with the YUKOS oil company, which refused to pay its taxes to the small town, the money was then stolen. He announced a hunger strike, and criminal action. After a few promises, he was murdered on the street with a burst of machine guns on the day of Khodorkhoski’s 30th birthday and on his orders. Petukhov’s wife fought for a long time in court to have the truth restored, writing, among other things, to President Yeltsin. The investigation led to a group of criminals, the two assassins were found themselves liquidated, then to the head of the local security of YUKOS, Alexey Pichugine who was sentenced to life imprisonment as organizer of the murder (2005).
The former Minister of the Interior at the time, Sergei Stepashin, when questioned about the case by NTV, declared that the assassination had been ordered by Khodorkovsky (2022). The Hague Tribunal then annulled the arbitration decision and Russia’s order to pay $50 billion to YUKOS shareholders (April 20, 2016). He sided with Navalny following his campaign and his shameful lists of “collaborators” to be sanctioned (May 2019). The American media published “information” (or rather imagined) acquired by Khodorkowski and the Open Russia group, on the financing and plans for the outbreak of a racial war in the United States by Russia, provoking a second civil war (June). This conspiracy theory from the United States as the vast majority of them have done since its way. The idea was to instill fear in the American public about a new “Russian” threat. Other themes are also used, all more or less delusional, such as the outbreak of a nuclear war by Russia to maintain this fear, and justify the support to Ukraine of weapons, money, specialists and various supports. The Ministry of Justice of Russia has put Khodorkovsky on the list of foreign agents, in particular supporting Ukraine (May 20, 2022).
Maxim Motin (1983-), originally from Moscow, Russia, he had a long career as a press officer for various football clubs in the capital, including FK Moskva and the Lokomotiv Children’s Academy (2003-2014). He founded a charitable association in favor of Football-Child orphans (2010). He ran for municipal elections in the Pechatniki district, in the city of Moscow, and was elected deputy leading all this time the great life (March 4, 2012, re-elected in 2017 for a second and last term). He presented himself as a candidate without a label, but in reality was an agent and supporter of Navalny. During the American Maidan in Ukraine, he went to Kiev and Odessa to support the Ukrainian position.
He declared that the Odessa massacre had been committed by the Russians, also condemning the return of Crimea to Russia (March-May 2014). He declared that the protesters murdered at the House of Trade Unions were drunks who wore St. George’s ribbons, and scandalized his horrible cynicism about the innocent victims murdered in Odessa that day (May 2). He himself was in the city at the time of the massacre and declared “that the Russians should not believe what they would hear on television”. He had spent time as a senior executive at the Russian communications company Megafon, working in public relations in charge of social and charitable programs (2012-2018). He was unmasked by the Megafon company, while as head of charitable funds, he had the latter pay a sum of more than 22 million rubles a year, and had to set sail.
He gave a long interview where he declared that he was half Ukrainian and that he was moving to Kiev for new business projects and for political reasons while he placed himself as an opponent of Russia (2018). He later declared (2021) that he had fled because he had won in 2017 in his district, 4 of the 5 seats previously occupied by United Russia and “that he had been called by friends who had warned him of his next arrest”. He also stated that “he had always had the position that Crimea was part of Ukraine and that Russia had annexed Crimea. This position was public, I am not one to remain silent”. He then worked in Lvov for the press service of the Roukh club. He was one of the organizers of a fan-zone during a Russia-Belgium match, where each Belgian goal would offer a free beer to the spectators in the zone (June 2021). This operation was unfair and contrary to the rules of the sport, not to mention the Russophobic aspect propelled him to the front of the propagandist scene in Ukraine (Russia was beaten by 3 goals to 0). He took pro-Ukrainian positions while still in Lvov (February 2022), and participated in the Congress of People’s Deputies in Ponomarev (November 5-7, 2022).
Lyubov Sobol in reality Lyubov Fedenev (1987-), originally from a town in the Moscow region, she studied law at Lomonosov University (2006-2011), and almost immediately became involved in politics, in the networks of Boris Nemtsov. She actually bears the name of her first husband. She was born Fedenev, and despite a divorce kept her married name, her father being linked to a dark history of corruption, as part of his employment in one of the largest audit companies in Russia (MIAN Firm, a scam estimated at 57 billion rubles of public funds). He received large bribes to give favorable opinions to Russian state banks, so that they would issue loans to companies or people who were actually not credible or not solvent. Having entered politics, she participated in discussion forums, rallies and demonstrations, which were often illegal, especially at the time of the abortive attempt at a color revolution that took place in Russia (2011-2012).
She became a lawyer, serving a civil project created by Navalny to fight corruption in the field of public spending (March 2011). She made a meteoric rise, named in a ranking of important and influential people for the year 2011, in the American magazine Forbes. She joined the People’s Alliance Political Party (2012), which became the Progress Party (2014), and was elected to the Coordination Council of the Russian opposition, which soon collapsed on its own after a short existence (following epic internal dissensions, 2013-2013). His half-brother, born in a second marriage of his father, Grigory Moussatov, showed his support for the American Maidan in Kiev (2013-2014), and even came to the Ukrainian capital to punch during the riots and violence.
Her companion at the time, Sergei Mokhov published on his social networks images of the neo-Nazi Azov battalion with the inverted Wofsangel of the SS Das Reich division, swastikas and other unequivocal emblems. But these facts remained in the shadows for several years (until around 2019). She announced her candidacy for the Duma (July 6, 2014), having submitted a sufficient number of applications, but it was canceled by the fact that 15% of the signatures were actually duplicates or suspicious (July 13). She protested by declaring that she was starting a hunger strike. The analysis of the signatures was without appeal, it was found in the lists of deceased people, inconsistencies in the dates of birth, non-existent people, inaccurate civil status data, false addresses or people who do not live in the city of Moscow, or actually have a temporary registration (therefore living in another region of Russia). After a week of demonstrations and a (simulated) hunger strike, she was arrested for the undeclared organization of rallies, fined 30,000 rubles (July 27), then 300,000 rubles for repeated offences (August 3). The tug of war started did not work in her favor, she had to give up. However, she announced again her candidacy for the Duma (March 2016), which she soon withdrew because she could not collect the necessary signatures.
Her companion, Sergei Mokhov was assaulted by unknown people who injected her with an unknown psychotropic substance (November 2016), which she then accused for years Prigojine according to dubious evidence. Mokhov who became her second husband (from whom she also divorced in 2021), had studied higher education in Manchester in Great Britain, then in New York (around 2014-2015). She was appointed to the central office of the leadership of the Russia of the Future Party (formerly the Progress Party, May 2018), and took over the production and management of Navalny’s YouTube channel (Navalny Live, August), while managing her own influence channel. She tried to participate in the municipal elections in the city of Moscow (2019), without success. The BBC had tried to make her an international muse by naming her as one of the 100 most influential women in the world.
At the end of the year, the cumulative fines for illegal gatherings or violations or disturbances of public order amounted to more than 1.5 million rubles (December 14). Arrests and fines multiplied again for the same reasons, 311,000 rubles, then 4.7 million and another 3.3 million (2020). She tried again to run for a seat in the Duma, making a long election campaign, but was arrested for violating sanitary and epidemiological rules, organizing protests again and again in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic (January 17, 2021).
The Memorial association, a foreign-funded association of historical revisionism and “defense of human rights”, declared that she was a “political prisoner” (the association is being liquidated for its foreign connections and repeated anti-Russian positions, judgment of December 28, 2021, confirmed on February 28, 2022). She was arrested and convicted in a case of “trespassing in a private home” (February 11), sentenced to a suspended prison sentence of one year and a fine of 10% of her salary (but the sentence was reduced to 6 months). She was then sentenced in the “sanitary” case to 1.5 years in prison suspended, a house arrest between 22 hours and 6 o’clock in the morning, a ban on participating in public demonstrations, leaving Moscow and its region, and having to receive a check every three months (August 3).
But other accusations hung over her, of fraud, collecting money to finance organizations banned in Russia, participation in the foundation of an anti-Russian extremist community, and the collection of money by foreign organizations reputed to be “Trojan Horse”. She fled to Turkey (August 7), then settled in Armenia, but Georgia refused her entry into its territory. A federal search warrant was launched against her (October 20). She was sued for defamation, having publicly accused Prigojine of being behind “an assassination attempt on her ex-husband”, a totally fanciful accusation (October 27). She was put on the list of extremist or terrorist persons by the Ministry of Justice (January 25, 2022), and entered the Russian anti-war Committee, taking pro-Ukrainian positions (February). She was also placed on the list of foreign agents or financed from abroad (May 6). It is not certain that she stayed in Armenia, having probably joined the West.
2nd category, the agents of the West :
Sergei Aleksashenko (1959-), originally from the Moscow region, he studied higher education at the prestigious MGIMO, in economics, graduated (1986), then was an executive of the Central Bank of Russia (1995-1998), he joined the PARNASS Party. He was an independent advisor to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Alexei Goncharuk (2019-2020). He was one of the founders of the Free Russia Movement, then of the Freedom Foundation with Boris Nemtsov. He emigrated to the United States in Washington, an employee of Georgetown University (October 2013), feeling “oppressed and oppressed” in Russia. He positioned himself against the return of Crimea to the Russian fold, and above all demanded that Russia abandon its support for Donbass: “by putting an end to the aggressive adventure, to withdraw from the territory of Ukraine, to cease its propaganda, material and military support to the separatists in the South-east of Ukraine” (September 2014). Such an act would have caused the death of tens of thousands of Donbass insurgents, not to mention the civilian populations and the fate that Ukraine would have reserved for them. He was one of the authors of the report “Putin War”, written with the documentation of Nemtsov (2015). He signed a petition against the adoption of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation (March 2020). He joined the Anti-war Committee against Russia and took pro-Ukrainian and Atlanticist positions (February-March 2022). He indicated that he would return to Russia once it had been defeated… the man resides in the United States and is presumably a CIA agent. He also worked for the “Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies”, within Harvard University.
Andrey Balin (1974-), originally from Togliatti, Russia, he joined the opposition, and was a member of a Mirror Research Center, having to observe public opinion in his region (2012). He joined the Republican Party of Russia (2012), which became the People’s Freedom Party (RPR-PARNAS), of which he became co-chairman, and member of the Council of the branch of the Samara region (2012-2013). He was sued by the Russian Federation “for inciting hatred, hostility and humiliation of human dignity” in relation to his numerous publications of racial hatred against the peoples of the Caucasus, the call for separatism of the Caucasian regions of the Russian Federation, and in a call to merge the United States and Russia into a single state, so the capital would have Anchorage in Alaska. He had gone to Moscow where he had met an American official at the US Embassy (2014). He complained that he had been beaten and that his laptop had been stolen from him (March 3, 2015).
He was the organizer of Mikhail Kasianov’s visit to Samara and Togliatti (2016). He was sentenced to three days in prison, for appearing in public “with Nazi symbols” (in support of Ukraine, in particular the insignia and SS wolfsangens of the Azov regiment). A search was ordered at his home, but he fled to the nearby forests in the Kirov region, where he stayed for a while to be forgotten. He reappeared on social networks where he resumed the delusional and aggressive publications, supporting Ukrainian propaganda, claiming that the Russian army was engaged in massacres, and was soon prosecuted again by the justice system (August 2022). He was then unemployed and with chronic problems with alcohol. The Russian justice system sent a psychiatrist to assess his mental state. He was recognized as healthy in body and mind. A lawsuit was filed again against him, for his pro-Ukrainian statements and the false information disseminated about the army of the Russian Federation, risking at least 3 years in prison (November 8, 2022).
Roman Dobrokhotov (1983-), originally from Moscow, Russia, he completed higher studies in political science at the prestigious MGIMO (2000-2006), in economics. He participated at a very young age in the opposition against Vladimir Putin (2005), a member of the Solidarity Movement (2008), he paid for the luxury of interrupting President Medvedev’s speech in the Kremlin for the 15th anniversary of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (December 12). He was appointed a member of the Political Council of the Moscow branch of the Solidarity Movement (2009), and one of the organizers of the dissidents’ marches. He managed to place his pen in the newspaper Izvestia, as an editor. He ran for the parliamentary elections in Moscow (July 2009), but could not be registered because he did not meet the requirements for the amount of signatures needed.
He participated in the petition “Putin must leave” (March 2010), and was one of the founders of the December 5 Party (summer 2012). He founded the Internet newspaper The Insider which was supposed to reveal fake news and do some investigation. He was arrested several times for participating in or provoking illegal demonstrations (2011-2013). He declared his support for the Belarusian rioters and political dissidents (September 2020), and The Insider was placed by the Ministry of Justice on the list of foreign agents or foreign-funded media (registered in Latvia and funded from this country by USAID, July 23, 2021). He was raided in his home following a defamation complaint from a Dutch blogger, Max Van der Werff whom he accused of colluding with the Russian government and the Russian secret services. Amnesty International came to his rescue by denouncing this search described as intimidation. He fled Russia and illegally crossed the border between Russia and Ukraine (August 1), a legal action was then opened against him for this illegal crossing (September 7). An arrest warrant was issued against him (September 23). He was registered on the list of foreign agents or financed by abroad (April 15, 2022).
Vladimir Dubov (1958-), originally from Moscow, he completed higher studies in chemistry (1979-1989). He became a businessman and banker, vice-chairman of the board of directors of the ROSPROM group, the MENATEP bank, and the YUKOS-Moscow group. He was elected deputy to the Duma, in the Homeland-All Russia bloc (90s, re-elected). He joined the United Russia party (2003), but got wet in the case of Open Russia and the occult and foreign financing of NGOs and associations serving as a Trojan horse in Russia (of which he was one of the main cog). The money for Open Russia came from the NED, an American USAID fund to be used to finance and organize the future color revolution in Russia. He fled to Israel (autumn 2003), and continued his business with former partners settled in Israel. After a long procedure, he was convicted in Russia, in particular of embezzlement of 76 billion rubles from the Russian budget, and sentenced in absentia to 8 years in prison. He never returned to Russia. The planned American color revolution in Russia was attempted several times in 2006-2007, in 2011-2012, and then in 2017. NATO and Ukraine have announced that they are working on a new attempt in Russia within two years (2022-2024).
Mark Feigin (1971-), originally from Samara, Russia, from a father of Jewish origin, he studied higher education and became politically involved in the Democratic Union Party (1989-1991), then enlisted in the Serbian army of General Ratko Mladic, fighting in Bosnia (1992-1993). On his return, he was a member of the Choice of Russia Party (1993), and ran for the legislative elections of the Duma. He was not elected, but the cancellation of the election of 8 eight deputies, finally allowed him to obtain his seat (January 4, 1994). He participated in humanitarian missions to rescue Russian prisoners in Chechnya (1995), but was not re-elected to the Duma (December). He graduated in law in Samara (1996), then was appointed deputy mayor of his city (1997-2007), which allowed him to have a regional forum.
Winner of the New World Prize (1998), he obtained a doctorate (1999), graduated in economics (2000), then from the Academy of the Minister of EA of Russia (2002). He became a lawyer at the Moscow bar (early 2000s), and made himself famous by being the defender of lost causes and especially of Russian or foreign agents of the West, such as the neo-Nazi deputy Nadezhda Savchenko, the Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Djemilev, the Pussy Riot of the Voïna group (War, a group funded by the CIA and USAID). He was suspended from his legal activities by the Moscow Bar Chamber, after vulgar and obscene public attacks launched against other lawyers and their clients (April 24, 2018). He committed himself to various parties and organizations, in particular the Solidarity Movement (around the years 2009-2011), developing a “Putin List” with hundreds of names of supporters of the President and people to target or shoot down, which was used and then taken over in the United States (2018). He committed himself to the cause of the demonstrations aimed at overthrowing President Lukashenko in Belarus (2020), a member of the Permanent Forum of Free Russia, founded in Lithuania (also funded by the CIA and USAID).
He had fled to the United States, where he continued his activities, in particular by playing a role in the events that led to the fall of Donald Trump (2021). In particular, he accused Russia of being behind the protests in Washington. He had launched a YouTube channel where he soon appeared in many videos with Arestovich, lieutenant colonel of the SBU political police in Ukraine and personal adviser to President Zelensky. He quickly supported the Ukrainian position and that of NATO, and was placed on the list of the Russian Ministry of Justice, as a “foreign agent” (April 8, 2022). He participated in the Congress of People’s Deputies motivated by Ponomarev (November 5-7, 2022), having taken an anti-Russian and anti-war position on Ukraine from the start. He had extramarital affairs with an LGBT activist which led to his divorce from his wife Natalia Kharitonova.
Irina Iasina (1964-), originally from Moscow, Russia, daughter of a former apparatchik of the Communist Party, minister of economy, she did higher studies in economics and became head of public relations department of the Central Bank of Russia (90s). She was the director of the British and Trojan horse organization, Open Russia. She was undoubtedly recruited by the CIA, at the time of her meeting with US President George Bush (2006), and joined the supervisory board of the report “Putin, Corruption” (March 2011), on the eve of what should have been a colorful revolution in Russia. She resigned from her public duties claiming that the elections were rigged (December), participated in opposition rallies that did not turn into a revolution (2011-2012). She took a stand against the annexation of Crimea to Russia (March 2014), was appointed a member of the Russian Jewish Congress. She then became much more discreet, moreover suffering from a serious illness, she is now forced to move in a wheelchair. She then gave interviews around spirituality, death, illness, suicide and other similar topics.
Andrey Illarionov (1961-), originally from the Saint-Petersburg region, Russia, he studied economics in Leningrad, also specializing in fascism and German national socialism, graduated (1983), he obtained a doctorate (1987), then became professor of economics. He won a British Council scholarship (1991), and studied at the University of Birmingham, Great Britain, then was invited to join the Russian government of Sergei Vasiliev (1992-1994), as deputy director of the working group for economic reforms to be carried out. After differences of opinion, he resigned from his post (February 1994). He became vice-president of an international center for socio-economic studies, and with the American Jeffrey Sachs (1954-, former adviser to the UN, now positioned as pro-Chinese, denouncing support for Ukraine and accusing NATO and the United States of being responsible for this war), organized and directed the Institute for Economic Analysis (IEA).
After a conflict with the American economist, their paths parted. He took a position in favor of the Chechen Islamists in the First Chechen War (1995), then criticized the economic decisions of the Russian government which led to the terrible crisis of 1998. He married an American citizen, with whom he then had three children, a senior executive at the American bank Brunswick UBS Warburg, who it was said was also a CIA agent (1996-1997). He met several times with Vladimir Putin, of whom he became one of the advisers (2000-2005), but his spirit of independence then led him to break up and resign (January 2005). He then gradually took the path of political dissidents, increasingly violent, working for the Cato Institute, a libertarian-inspired center for freedom and global prosperity based in the United States (2006-2021).
He participated in a “March of Dissidents” (2007), declaring President Medvedev illegitimate (2008), then made statements at a US congressional hearing criticizing the restart of relations between Russia and the United States (2009). He signed a petition demanding Putin’s departure (2010), actively participating in attempts to disrupt and destabilize Russia (2011-2012). He was awarded the highest distinction in Georgia by President Saakashvili, shortly before the latter fled to the United States (October 2013). He criticized the return of Crimea to Russia, and also condemned the insurrection of the populations of Donbass (2014). Losing his composure, he declared that “Putin was also preparing the annexation of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic countries”.
He attacked the protests in Washington (January 8, 2021), comparing the event to the fire of the Reichstag in 1933, and was dismissed from the Cato Institute (January 12). He entered the Think Thank Center for Security Policy (April 2021 to the present). He attacked US President Biden in the Ukrainian media, stating that the United States was negotiating with Russia and Vladimir Putin, comparing the event to the Munich Agreements of 1938. He had long since fled Russia, settling in the United States and appearing very often in the Ukrainian media. He took a stand against the war in Ukraine, and participated in the Congress of People’s Deputies in Ponomarev (November 5-7, 2022).
Mikhail Kasianov (1957-), originally from the Moscow region, he studied higher education as an engineer in the automotive industry (1974-1976), then performed his military service in the prestigious regiment of the Kremlin Guard (1976-1978). He then worked as an engineer, and graduated several more times as an engineer and in economics (1979-1987). Senior State official, head of a department of the Economic Committee (1990-1991), starting deputy at the Ministry of Economy (1991), he moved to the Ministry of Finance (1993), Deputy Finance Minister (1995-1999), Deputy Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Finance Minister under Boris Yeltsin. First Vice-President of the Russian Federation (2000), Chairman of the Administration of the Russian government (2000-2004).
He began to oppose President Putin by challenging or criticizing decisions (2003), in particular the arrests in the YUKOS case. He resigned from his post (February 24, 2004). He was attacked and denounced by a deputy of the Duma in a corruption case, that of the sale at a low price of one of the residences of the state formerly occupied by Mikhail Suslov, the eminence grise of the Kremlin (1939-1982), and powerful member of the Politburo during the Soviet era (1952-1953, 1955-1982), acquired by Kassianov. A long court case forced him, despite his refusal, to return the property to the Russian state (2007). He then approached the most prominent opponents, including Boris Nemtsov, taking the lead of the People’s Democratic Movement (2006), transformed into the Russian People’s Democratic Union.
He joined the Solidarity Movement (2008-2009), and tried to run for president (2008), but failed to gather the necessary documents and support. President Putin offered him important positions three times, which he refused. He took a stand against the return of Crimea to the Russian fold, and personally called on NATO and the United States to organize sanctions against Russia (April 2014). He declared that another referendum should be organized “with the agreement of Ukraine” (which would never have accepted it of course), then signed a declaration urging Russia “to put an end to the aggressive adventure in eastern Ukraine, to withdraw its troops from Ukraine (who never entered, this myth was dismantled by Jacques Baud, former NATO collaborator), and to put an end to propaganda, material and military support for the separatists in the South-East of Ukraine” (September). He declared before the European Parliament “that he considered it fair the imposition of sanctions by the West against officials of the Russian government” (March 2015).
He was one of the authors of the Nemtsov list, including journalists, presenters and politicians considered “agents of the Kremlin and harassing Boris Nemtsov”. This list was handed over to congressional politicians in the United States so that these men and women could be sanctioned by the United States and its satellites. The case made public caused a huge scandal and was felt as a betrayal of Russia, not to mention the moral judgment “of this gesture” (2015). He got closer to Navalny who made him a top of the list in the parliamentary elections (2016). The anti-Russian and scandalous statements caused an electoral rout of the PARNAS party that he had joined. The hatred he had generated in his public betrayal triggered a series of attacks by citizens with tear gas canisters, cream cakes or paint (2016-2017). He became the leader of the PARNAS Party (2017-present). He often visited Ukraine, where he met Mustafa Djemilev, Tatar leader lying on a list of terrorists in Russia, to whom he promised the return of the Crimea “to the Tatars of Ukraine”. He fled Russia and flew to London (June 2, 2022), via Dubai. He had joined the Anti-war Committee of Russia, and took pro-Ukrainian positions.
Vera Kichanova (1991-), originally from Moscow, she studied journalism, graduated (2013), and joined the Libertarian Party of Russia. She made herself famous by becoming an important influencer and blogger (2008-2014), working as a correspondent for The Voice of America (2011-2012). She caused a sensation during a visit by President Medvedev to Lomonosov University in Moscow, where, together with other students, she displayed signs demanding the release of the oligarch Khodorkovsky and other “democratic” demands denouncing the upcoming presidential elections in Russia (2011). She was arrested with 17 other students, then released after a few hours. She caused a scandal by publicizing her marriage to an LGBT activist, Pavel Gniloribov, then both extremely young, the photo of her husband dressed as a schoolgirl and holding a soft toy shocked Russia, with a hint of pedophilia almost affirmed (the marriage sank very quickly).
She entered politics by running for mayor of Moscow, elected in a district (March 4, 2012), she participated in the demonstrations that tried to trigger an American colored revolution in Russia (2011-2013), and wrote a book about Pussy Riot. A member of the Voina group (War), a group of dissidents funded by USAID and responsible for organizing provocations in Russia, she was suspected of having been among the leaders of the blasphemous action of Pussy Riot in the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior and other previously organized actions. Among them were the “concert” on the roof of a trolleybus, the orgy organized in the middle of the day in a Moscow museum or the provocation where Pussy Riot penetrated the vagina of chickens in a Moscow supermarket.
She was invited by the NED to Washington (July 2013), and was awarded by the American Congressional Foundation with a Democracy Award. The NED is a branch of USAID, the sprawling American organization of infiltration, interference and influence in the world, closely linked to the CIA. She fled and settled in Ukraine in Kiev, working as an editor for Ukraine (2015-2016), in a propaganda internet media. She obtained a scholarship and studied at the University of Oxford, then at King’s College in London. Her mandate as a municipal deputy was canceled by a court of justice, because she no longer participated in meetings, and had not provided her tax returns (May 16, 2017). She campaigned for LGBT ideology, herself claiming her bisexuality. Living in London, she married Ptior Kaznacheev (2019), a former political opponent of the Russian far-left, who was the leader of the anti-fascist Youth Movement (in the mid-90s). She has been very discreet for a few years and has, so to speak, disappeared from the radar (2017-2022).
Elena Lukyanova (1958-), originally from Moscow, Russia, daughter of the last President of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1990-1991), she was according to her statements educated in “a private English school”. She did higher studies in Law, at Lomonosov University, graduated (1980), Lenin Komsomol Prize for her academic work (1989), then defended two doctoral theses (1984 and 2003), she was a warm supporter of the preservation of the USSR and demonstrated in the street in this direction (1992), member the same year of the Communist Party (1992-2009). She ran for the Moscow City Council elections (2005), not elected, then for the Duma but withdrew her candidacy (2006). She became a professor of constitutional law (2013-2020), at the University from which she was finally dismissed following the abolition of her position, she complained about it in the media.
She was also a councilor in the Duma thanks to her father’s connections (nepotism), but also a lawyer and member of the Moscow bar. She joined the political opposition party RPR-PARNAS, linked to Mikhail Khodorkovsky for a long time (2015), which she left (2016), to join the Liberal Party of Change. She publicly declared that she supported the political demonstrations aimed at overthrowing President Lukashenko, and criticized the amendments made to the Constitution of the Russian Federation (2020), then joined the Anti-War Committee of Russia (February 2022). She declared on this occasion that “Russia was on the same equal footing as fascist Germany”. She participated in the Congress of People’s Deputies motivated by Ponomarev (November 5-7, 2022). She went into exile in Latvia (before 2016, her residence permit was disputed), where she had long acquired a residence, and where the Anti-War Committee of Russia is located, and of which she is one of the main cog (funded by the EU, the CIA and USAID). Very cautious and cunning, her interviews are often in the art and the way of not saying head-on what she thinks or implies.
Danil Markelov (?-), originally from the Novosibirsk region, he entered politics locally and ran in the regional elections (2020), in the Novosibirsk-2020 coalition of Navalny’s opposition group. His candidacy was invalidated by the insufficient number and defective signatures (suspicion of forgery). He was arrested by the police for the illegal organization and without filing a request, of a demonstration in favor of political opponent Alexei Navalny (January 2021). He was held in prison for ten days and then released. Navalny’s group was recognized by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation as an extremist and foreign-funded organization.
A lawsuit was pending against him in this regard, so he decided to flee Russia and thanks to Navalny’s American supports and contacts emigrated to the United States (early January 2022), and communicated that he was in Hollywood with his wife, having fled Russia “because my friends were arrested on charges of extremism […] there are many difficulties to come here, but I have friends in this new place and my love is close to me”, intending to apply for political asylum in the United States . His flight was certainly covered by the US embassy in Moscow, the difficulties he speaks of are mainly for form and propaganda, important means have been and are being put to work to support all the Russians who have betrayed their country and likely to be useful for the colored revolution desired by the Americans and their satellites in Russia. Three attempts have already failed, in 2007-2008, 2011-2012 and 2017-2018, all repulsed and dismantled by the Russian services and by the people’s support for President Vladimir Putin.
Alexei Navalny (1976-), originally from the Moscow region, he completed higher studies in law (1993-1998), then in finance (1998-2001). He founded various companies (1997-2005), most of which went bankrupt, and lost money by trading stock. He entered politics by joining the Apple Party (2000), elected to the Moscow Regional Council (2002), head of the party’s campaign for the parliamentary elections (2003), and founded the Committee for the Protection of Muscovites (2004). He was vice-chairman of the party for the Moscow regional branch (2004-2007). The following year he founded with others the Yes Movement! Democratic alternative, then was a candidate for the Moscow municipal elections (2005). He then turned to the profession of radio host (2006), and hosted many programs on political and social themes. He was appointed a member of the Federal Political Bureau of the party (2006-2007), and was one of the founders of the Narod Movement (People, 2007).
He came into conflict with one of the founders of the party, Grigory Yavlinsky, whose head he asked for, and a purge of the political bureau. After a vote, he was expelled from the Apple Party for “having caused political damage to the party, in particular for his nationalist activities incompatible with the party line” (December 2007). He participated in several nationalist demonstrations, The Russian March (between 2006 and 2012). He founded the Union of Minority Shareholders, to defend the rights of private investors (2008), and the Russian National Movement (2008-2011). He took a position at that time in favor of South Ossetia and against the invasion of the Georgians (2008). He was appointed independent advisor by the governor of the Kirov region (2009), then joined the Moscow Bar as a lawyer (2009-2010). Having linked up with opposition figures, including Garry Kasparov, he was fired and was able to follow a six-month training course at Yale University, in the Yale World Fellows program (2010).
Following this training he was one of the speakers of the Helsinki Committee of the American Congress which ruled … on corruption in Russia. He was hired by the director of the American Institute of Modern Russia, and paid handsomely with salaries of more than 10,000 dollars per month (2011). It was at this time that his opposition to the presidential party and Vladimir Putin began to take on an extreme character. He called the United Russia Party “the party of crooks and thieves” (February 2, 2011), causing a certain scandal in the media and attracting attention. The United Russia Party announced to sue him (August 17).
He then participated in numerous demonstrations against the regime (2011-2013), multiplying provocations and often undeclared demonstrations. He was arrested by the police during one of them (December 5, 2011), sentenced to 15 days in prison, he was recognized in a rather ridiculous way by Amnesty International as a political prisoner (released on December 21). Navalny proposed a public debate with the United Russia Party, which refused to debate with “this provocateur” (February 20, 2012). He launched other demonstrations, with the aim of provoking a colorful revolution in Russia, he announced in particular a “March of the Millions” for March 5th. The march was a failure gathering at most a few thousand people, but he kept up the pressure by organizing yet other undeclared events and was arrested again and sentenced to 15 days in prison (May 9).
He had been presented as a candidate for the Board of Directors of the airline Aeroflot (February 2012), and actually entered the latter (June 25). He was involved in the case of fraud and fraud in the firm Yves Rocher (December 2012-December 2014), sentenced to 3.5 years in prison suspended. Following this case, his mandate at Aeroflot was not renewed (February 2013), so he announced that he would seize the presidency of the country sooner or later (April 4). He then attacked the Moscow municipal election, candidate for the PARNAS Party, but was defeated (27.24% of the votes, 2nd place), but he contested the election and asked for a new vote count, which he was refused (September 20).
He was struck off from the Moscow Bar Association by the Chamber of Lawyers, following a corruption case (November 16). He participated in the foundation of the Popular Alliance Party transformed into the Progress Party, then the Future Party (2013-2015), parties that were not registered. He took a stand against the return of Crimea to Russia, and demanded that additional sanctions be voted on against Russia and a certain number of Russian citizens (March 20, 2014). Navalny’s group published a list of personalities to be sanctioned in Russia, and which was published on the website of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats of Europe (of which President Macron’s party is now part).
He then tried to surf on the theme of corruption in the country and organized demonstrations on this theme in the city of Moscow, undeclared demonstrations (March 26, 2017), he was sentenced the next day to 15 days in prison and a fine of 20,000 rubles. He was attacked in the street by an individual who sprayed him with a corrosive liquid (April 27), burning his right eye and causing him to lose part of his vision. He was taken to Spain in Barcelona where he underwent surgery (May 8th). Navalny then accused the presidential administration of having ordered this attack without proof. He launched a new call for demonstrations throughout the country (June 12), and was arrested the same day for undeclared organization of demonstrations and sentenced to 25 days in prison.
Despite his intention to participate in the 2018 presidential election, he was caught up in the Kirov case where he was involved in a corruption scheme, and was convicted, which eliminated him from the presidential race (in Russia unlike France, you cannot be a presidential candidate with a criminal record). This triggered the public intervention of the United States, clearly showing who Navalny was actually working for, and he asked for the annulment of the verdict, claiming that it was an attack on democracy and prevent him from running. The European Union made the same statements and tried to interfere in Russia’s affairs, Navalny’s case was brought to the European Court of Human Rights which tried to force Russia’s hand (September).
He launched new calls for mass demonstrations, but only managed to gather a few thousand people in the country (up to 60-70,000 throughout the country, with 150 million inhabitants). He was arrested for organizing new undeclared demonstrations (September 29), sentenced to 20 days in prison. The validation of his registration for the presidential election was refused to him for his conviction in court, once again the European Union tried to put pressure (December 26). He then launched a campaign to boycott the presidential election, with the slogan “he is not a King” (2018). He continued to organize illegal demonstrations, arrested again at the time of the regional elections (2019), he accumulated 474 days in prison, including 242 under house arrest (July).
He was hospitalized and tried to make believe in an attempted poisoning, which was not confirmed by medical and toxicological analyzes. This was disputed by Navalny’s doctor who asked that an investigation be carried out for poisoning. He fell ill after a flight from Tomsk to Moscow, and was hospitalized urgently, and claimed to have been poisoned once again. He was rushed to Germany for treatment (August 22, 2020), with the help of German diplomats. The doctors declared that they had found traces of poisoning with cholinesterase inhibitors (deadly poisons present in some snake venoms, or chemical weapons, August 24). Then they declared that the poisoning had taken place with Novichok agents (September 2), a chemical weapon developed by the USSR, then by Russia (70s-90s), analyzes confirmed by two Swedish and French laboratories (September 14). The West then accused the Russian government, which denied any involvement.
In all illogical, but probably because Navalny knew very well that the Russian regime was not guilty, he managed to return to Russia, where he was arrested at Sheremetyevo airport, for another scam and corruption case where he was involved, the Yves Rocher case (January 17, 2021). The United States, Great Britain, the European Union again stepped up to the plate and again tried to interfere in Russia’s affairs. Amnesty International declared Navalny a political prisoner again. He was sentenced in the Yves Rocher case to 2 years and 8 months in prison (February 2nd), which gave rise to a new standoff with the Westerners, their governments and the media.
He tried to play the comedy of mistreatment, back pain, torture by insomnia, or loss of sensitivity of the right leg, Amnesty International condemned the “inhuman conditions” of detention of the prisoner (March 28, 2021, a pure fabrication). He then announced to start a hunger strike (March 31), then was transferred to a hospital for convicts (April 19), and announced to end his hunger strike (April 23). The Western media were ordered to mount a campaign to defend Navalny and denounce the hypothetical poisoning attempt that he allegedly said he had suffered (August 2021).
The Guardian, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Le Monde newspapers were involved, we will find these undemocratic techniques and violating the ethics of journalism as systematic after the outbreak of the Russian special operation. Emmanuel Macron then asked for the release of the political prisoner (August 20). It was then announced that a new judicial investigation was underway against him, for acts of extremism, and entered on the register of anti-Russian extremists and terrorists (January 25, 2022), risking up to 15 additional years in prison.
He was prosecuted at the same time for various cases of economic fraud, tax fraud, etc., and was sentenced to 9 years in prison (March 22), which was confirmed on appeal (May 24). He was then indicted for the foundation of an extremist community in Russia, and advocating an anti-Russian ideology (May 31). He was put to work in a sewing workshop (7 hours of work a day, except on Sundays, with educational activities). He complained about these conditions of detention, which he described as “torture” (he had never really worked).
A photo of him went around the world behind his sewing machine. It would take a long time to tell all the adventures, he was recruited for a long time by the CIA and should have played the role of Saakashvili in Georgia in Russia: to seize power and start a colorful revolution. The West has made him the ultimate hero in thousands of articles presenting the man, despite being convinced of various scams and corruption, as a brave political opponent placed above or equal to Solzhenitsyn. In comparison with France, the demonstrations of Marriage For All, or Yellow Vests, gathered up to 20 times more demonstrators than Navalny was able to gather in his demonstrations, and in a country more than half as populated as Russia. Its maximum ever estimated capacity of demonstrators reached 100,000 demonstrators throughout the country, and electoral estimates crediting it with 5 to 7% of the votes cast.
Ilya Ponomarev (1975-), originally from Russia, he founded his first company at the age of 16 (1991), computer engineer, he did higher studies in physics (1992), which he did not finish but entered as an executive in the YUKOS oil company (1998). He held many important positions in various companies and within the Russian Skolkovo Foundation, of which he became advisor to the president (2010). He was involved in politics in the Communist Party of Russia, whose ranks he later left (2007). He ran for the legislative elections to the Duma, and was elected in a liberal left party “Fair Russia”, in the Novosibirsk region (December 2007). He finally joined this party, appointed to the central bureau (2008), and was re-elected to his Duma seat (2011).
He came into conflict with the leader of the Russian nationalist LDPR party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, accusing him of having fraudulently received a doctorate, while the latter accused him of having embezzled money from the foundation to finance political demonstrations in Moscow (2011-2012). He was indeed one of the leaders of the liberal opposition which tried to destabilize Russia, by organizing marches and demonstrations which were much publicized in the West, despite the few participants (from a few thousand, to 20-25, 000 participants in the immense agglomeration of Moscow of 19 million inhabitants). He associated himself at that time with Navalny, and declared that the Russian government had disrupted a planned demonstration of importance “by bringing down the rain”.
This ridiculous statement caused a laughingstock of public opinion, especially on social networks (June 2012). He was worried by the Skolkovo Foundation, about conferences not held and which had nevertheless been paid for, which he should have given within the foundation (2013). At that time he was denounced by Nalvany for “the prohibitive salaries” received in the foundation. He was ordered to return part of the money by a court (2,7 million rubles on 9, April 2013). He left the Fair Russia Party (October 30), then was the only Duma deputy to protest against the return of Crimea to the Russian fold (March 20, 2014). He then preferred to flee Russia, to go into exile in the United States.
His refusal to return the money to the Skolkovo Foundation caused bailiffs to seize several of his assets to cover his debts (September 2014). He soon gave lectures in Washington, openly attacking Russia and President Putin (January 2015). He campaigned in the United States for the extension of sanctions against Russia. Zhirinovsky’s denunciations of 2013, led to a legal action against him, the judicial investigation having highlighted the embezzlement in the Skolkovo foundation of 22 million rubles (March 25, 2015). The Russian Duma then withdrew his parliamentary immunity (April 7), soon followed by criminal proceedings for embezzlement and complicity in embezzlement. He was deprived of his powers as a deputy for the systematic non-performance of his duties as a deputy and his absenteeism (June 10, 2016).
He founded a company in New York, Trident Acquisitions (June 2016-2018), which aimed to invest in Ukraine in various flagship sectors, energy, agriculture, gas and oil. He was sent to Ukraine (July), linked to the George Soros Foundation which had in fact been financing his activities for quite a while. His company was supposed to try to take control of the Ukrainian gas pipelines and weigh in on the gas war. He then settled permanently in Ukraine, and President Poroshenko signed a decree on the last day of his duties, making him a Ukrainian citizen (May 17, 2019). He then displayed himself with the Ukrainian flag, but above all with a business card of the neo-Nazi Right Sector Party. He launched an appeal on Ukrainian radio promising $1 million to the one who would “deliver Russian President Vladimir Putin dead or alive to international justice” (March 2022).
He claimed to enlist in the territorial defense of Kiev, then founded a television channel, February Morning with the aim of broadcasting anti-Russian propaganda to the attention of Russians, on the theme of the fall of Putin (April). He publicly called on the Russians to sabotage the military commissariats in Russia, to turn into arsonists and to sabotage the war effort by all means in their possession (May). He spoke in front of the cameras, after the assassination of Daria Douguina (August 20) and claimed responsibility for the attack on the Russian journalist and philosopher on behalf of the National Republican Army (a completely unknown group until then), also calling for the desertion and mutiny of all Russian soldiers.
It was after this false declaration that contacts were opened with the legion, with proposals for cooperation. He was uninvited from a gathering of liberals and Russian defectors financed by the West, which was to be held in Vilnius (August), a group called the Russian Action Committee (headed by Kasparov). The Russian Ministry of Justice declared that he was now included in the list of “foreign agents” of anti Russia (October 21). He proclaimed the formation of a first congress of people’s deputies in exile, of Russia (November 4-7). The congress was a fiasco, some of the participants refusing to pursue further following manipulations and changes to the common documents that had to be produced, and the unanimous vote of decisions taken in reality without fault by Ponomarev alone.
Lev Ponomarev (1941-), originally from Tomsk, Russia, he did higher studies in physics, graduated (1965-1968), PhD (1983), he entered politics by joining the Congress and then the Democratic Russia Movement of which he was one of the founders (1990). He was elected deputy to the Duma (1990-1993), and voted for the end of the USSR (December 12, 1991). He was not re-elected (1993), but regained his seat following the death of a deputy (1994-1995), then took a stand against Russia during the First Chechen War (1995). He founded a movement for Human Rights (1997), which he declared to be almost entirely financed by American funds, including the National Endowment for Democracy (NED, a subsidiary of USAID).
He founded a group of opponents the General Action (1997), then a Russian National Committee (2001), attacking Russia during the Second Chechen War (1999-2009), and denouncing the conditions of detention in Russia. He was sentenced to three days in prison for participating in an undeclared strike around the Beslan attack (2004). Amnesty International hastened to give him the status of a political prisoner for his three days in prison (ridicule has never killed anyone). He participated in the attempts to trigger a colored revolution in Russia (2010-2012), signing Kasparov’s petition “Putin must leave” (March 10, 2010).
He was sentenced on two other occasions for participating in undeclared demonstrations (3 and 4 days in prison, 2010). He was decorated with the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2010). He was trapped by the recording of a private conversation between himself and an employee of the Japanese embassy, where he advised that country to finance civil organizations and NGOs in the Russian Far East, in order to support the idea of transferring the Kuril Islands to Japan (October 2011), a conversation that was published in Komsomolskaya Pravda (March 22, 2012). In the same conversation, he indicated that he was financed by the United States, and indicated that Sweden was secretly financing other assemblies and NGOs in the North-West of Russia. He appealed to the US ambassador and President Putin to become mediators in the Ukrainian crisis (January 27, 2014), then founded a Congress Against the war and Russia’s self-isolation.
He denounced the return of Crimea to Russia, as well as the Donbass uprising (March-June 2014). The Democratic Russia Movement was placed on the list of foreign-funded movements and foreign agents (2014-2018), but he reformed the Movement in a different legal form, with the same name (2019). He had attacked Russia by the European Court of Human Rights over two demonstrations in which he had participated in 2010 (2017). He falsely claimed that he had been beaten by the FSB and had temporarily lost his hearing abilities (March 14, 2020). He preferred to announce the liquidation of the movement, which in turn risked being added to the list of undesirable organizations in Russia and agents from abroad (March 1, 2021). However, he was prosecuted for his anti-Russian activities (2020-2021), in particular for anti-Russian posts and fined several times. He preferred to flee Russia (April 22, 2022), which was soon announced by the media (June 2). He is not related to the previous one.
Svetlana Prokopieva (1979-), originally from Pskov, Russia, she did graduate studies in history, graduated (2002). She became a journalist in a local newspaper as a columnist (2002-2006), then moved to the city of Saratov, editor of speeches and communications of the governor of the region (2006-2009). She returned to her native region, taking a job in the Regional Council (2009-2010), then again was employed by the Saratov Government (2010-2012). She then became an editor in Pskovskaya Pravda, but tried to revolutionize the writing, the methods and quickly made enemies. She was a member of the Apple Party (since an unknown date). She caused a sensation by claiming that a company of the 76th airborne division had been almost annihilated in Ukraine, and that paratroopers from Pskov would have been buried in the greatest secrecy in the region (October 2014).
She worked for Radio Svoboda (a radio funded by USAID and the United States, 2014-2015), and for The Echo of Moscow (2016-2019). She joined Navalny’s team (2018), participating in his presidential campaign which turned into a disaster, Navalny having been convicted in corruption cases. She received a first warning from Roskomnadzor, the equivalent of the CSA in France (2018). She defended an anarchist terrorist, Mikhail Khobitsky (2001-2018), who entered a federal office of the FSB (October 31), where he blew himself up with a homemade bomb. He was killed instantly, but three officers were seriously injured. She accused the Russian government of “having become repressive” and caused a national scandal (November 7).
A good part of the Russian media attacked the opposition as being responsible for this drama and for fabricating terrorists. The teenager had last been in contact with another boy, aged 14, living in Moscow who was soon arrested (November 2). Components for the potential manufacture of a bomb were discovered at his home, being suspected in turn of wanting to detonate a device in a demonstration. The opposition tried to take advantage of this to trigger hostile movements against the government. She was attacked by the Ministry of Justice (2019) and prosecuted for “her justification of terrorism”. Her apartment was raided (February 6), and she was added to the list of extremists or terrorists in Russia (July 4), her bank accounts were frozen. In response, two anarchist activists had thrown a grenade into the security lock of the Russian Embassy in Athens (March 22, 2019), he had no victims, and the group made threats if other anarchists were killed “by the Russians”.
She was charged in court (September 20), and sentenced to a fine of 500,000 rubles (July 6, 2020). She had been named that year “Woman of the Year”, by Glamour magazine. To pay the fine, she opened a collection and managed to collect 2 million rubles, which were used to pay her fine, the rest being paid to the Center for the Protection of Media Rights (February 15-25, 2021). She headed the section of the Pskov journalists’ union (2021), and appealed her case, but the Court of Cassation confirmed the verdict (July 6). A new search took place at her home, her equipment partly seized, having taken pro-Ukrainian positions (March 18, 2022). She fled Russia immediately after (March 22). However, she was removed by the Russian Ministry from the list of extremists (May 19).
Ekaterina Schulman (1978-), originally from Tula, Russia, she studied English at George Brown College, in Toronto, Canada, then returned to her hometown. She moved to Moscow, working in the state news agency, Ria Novosti (1999), and joined the Apple Party, employed as parliamentary assistant to deputy Yuri Nesterov (1999-2006). She graduated from the Academy of the Civil Service, specialist in jurisprudence (2005), occupying a position of director in a private consulting company, the PBN Company (2006-2011). She became an influencer, founding various social networks, YouTube channel, Instagram soon counting a few hundred thousand subscribers (2016-2022). She was a member of the Presidential Council of the Russian Federation for the Development of Civil Society and Human rights (2018-2019).
She collected donations by using her YouTube channel and her notoriety to support opposition figures having run-ins with the justice system and the opposition itself (February 2021). She sided with the war in Ukraine, and her group of fans on the VK network was blocked at the request of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, for the dissemination of false information about the Russian army and media attacks against Russia (March 20, 2022). She probably asked for help in Germany, so as not to seem to run away because she soon announced her departure from Russia, as part of an invitation for missions for the Robert Bosch Foundation (April 12), and left Russia. She claimed that it had nothing to do with politics and asked not to be put on the list of foreign agents.
The Foundation founded in 1964 carries out social, cultural and scientific projects, having founded an academy in Berlin, affiliated to the Network of European Foundations for Innovative Cooperation (NEF), headquartered in Brussels and bringing together a total of 13 European foundations from several Western countries. Some of these foundations are linked to banks, or lead to lobbying and large international groups, such as the powerful General Motors. She was placed by the Ministry of Justice on the list of foreign agents or financed by foreigners (April 15), then soon accused of collaboration and complicity with Ukraine (April 17). She regularly attacked Russia and President Putin, with hushed but aggressive propaganda videos such as “Is Putin destroying Ukraine, Belarus and Russia? ».
She also gave guest lectures recently in London, the themes all revolving around support for Ukraine, the imminent destruction of Russia, the destruction of the Russian economy, on the failure of mobilization or on the question of “where the Russian border really is”. One of the fundings of the Robert Bosch Foundation, was the creation of a Ukrainian Commission of Historians (DUH), focusing on the history of the First and Second World War, on the German occupation, the Holocaust and the history of Ukraine under the Soviet Union, with the aim of rewriting history. One of the characters behind the project was the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andrey Melnik, who made a name for himself by his support for neo-Nazism and other scandalous statements. In Russia, the foundation worked with German historians on similar themes within the framework of the Memorial association, very controversial because it uses the black faces of the history of Russia and the USSR to subtly make anti-Russia.
Karen Shainian (1981-), originally from Irkutsk, Russia, with Armenian and Greek origins, he studied medicine in biochemistry in Moscow, graduated (2005), bi LBGT activist. He went to the United States to pursue journalism studies, University of Mississippi (2007-?), and began working for Radio Svoboda (until 2013), an American propaganda radio funded by USAID. He returned to Russia and was an editor in the magazines Zhivi, or Snob, then was deputy editor-in-chief for the magazine Slon (until 2015). He was recruited as director of marketing in the publishing house Alpina Publisher (2016-2017), and wrote and published several bestsellers. He created a YouTube channel of influence Straight Talk With Gay People (more than 191,000 subscribers, 15 million views), proselytizing and LGBT propaganda.
He invited mainly American stars for interviews such as Cynthia Nixon (1956-), actress, Billy Porter (1969), actor, Martina Navratilova (1956-), tennis champion, etc. The channel broadcast documentaries focused on the LGBT cause and propaganda in Russia, while he had made his official coming-out on the social network Facebook (2019). He was placed by the Ministry of Justice on the list of foreign agents (April 15, 2022). Father of two children (two boys born in 2011 and 2018), their mother living with them in Ukraine, in Kiev. He sided with the Ukrainians and was one of the first to flee from Russia. His latest videos are all oriented to demoralize the Russian population, with the themes of the so-called failed mobilization, the flight of doctors from Russia, the Ukrainian bombings of Belgorod, the future Dagestan revolt, or attacks on Yevgeny Prigozhin. He had fled at the end of February 2022, most certainly for Ukraine.
Vitaly Shkliarov (1976-), originally from Gomel, Belarus, he emigrated to Germany where he completed higher studies in social sciences (2002). He was one of Angela Merkel’s political assistants and advisers, which launched his career as an “election” mercenary. He then emigrated to the United States, where he campaigned as a volunteer in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign (2008), occupying the role of “agitator”. He then served as department head for Tammy Baldwin’s field campaign running for the Wisconsin state senate seat. She was the first woman elected to this seat and at the same time the first lesbian senator (2012), but he failed to get Ro Khanna elected in the state of California (2014). He was hired by Senator Bernie Sanders, during the presidential campaign, and the primaries in the state of Nevada (2016). He still worked for this politician in the state of Washington, where he challenged Hillary Clinton, but the Democratic Party primaries were finally won by Clinton.
He was considered as one of the best chances to help the Russian opposition to bring down the regime and allow the Western control over the wealth of Russia. Therefore, he was sent to organize the campaigns of more than 1,000 opposition candidates, under the leadership of Maxime Katz (2017), most of them members of the Apple Party. He tried to take control of Sobchak’s candidacy for the presidency of Russia, which ended in a fiasco (1.68%). He was sent the same year to organize the presidential candidacy in Georgia of the opponent Grigori Vachadze, who reached the second round but was defeated. He had more success in Moscow by managing to get Daria Bessedina elected to the Duma (2019).
He was then sent to Belarus in the political turmoil in order to support the opponent and also CIA agent, Tikhanovskaya who tried to trigger a colorful revolution in Belarus (2020). This time, he was arrested (July 29), and detained for some time (until the end of September). His lawyer tried to make believe in inhumane conditions, torture, deprivation of sleep, food and even prevented from drinking. He complained “of having to shave with a blunt razor, despite a very strong irritation of the skin”. The European Federation of Journalists entered the dance to demand his release, soon followed by a parade of personalities from the EU, the Council of Europe, the UN or other luminaries of Western salons.
He was finally placed under house arrest (October 14), released (October 19), and then, after negotiations, sent back to the United States (October 27). Despite the “terrible and horrible tortures” that he had claimed to have undergone, a thorough medical examination led to the conclusion “that he was in a satisfactory state of health”. He then decided to move to Ukraine, where he officially lives in Kiev, also seen in Estonia in Tallinn (2022). He affirmed that “Ukraine was a vaccine” for the entire region and that the battle being waged in Ukraine was a battle between two worldviews. He hinted that he had been quite “traumatized” by his arrest and detention, and has so far been much more discreet. He also indicated that he could flee Kiev for Poland, if necessary, but did not want to return to the United States and live in “a more familiar world”, and probably away from “skin irritation problems”…
Anatoly Chubais (1955-), was born in Belarus, the son of a career officer from Moscow, hero of the Great Patriotic War. He lived in different military garrisons following his father, in particular in Odessa, or Lvov, then Leningrad. He studied mechanical engineering and mechanical production (1977-1982), PhD, professor in his specialty (1982-1990). He had joined the Communist Party (1978-1990). He had become close to a group of young economists and reformists, organizer and president of a local club “Perestroika” (1986), he entered politics in the ranks of the political movement Democratic Russia (1990), appointed vice-chairman of the Executive Committee of the city of Leningrad, close to Sobchak, of which he was the economic advisor (1991).
Appointed Chairman of the State Committee for the management of State property (1991-1996), vice-president of the Government of the Russian Federation for economic and financial issues (1992), he was in charge of a vast privatization program of Russian society and was one of the responsible for the anarchy that spread in Russia in the 90s, with wild capitalism, banditry, the mafia and corruption. He sold whole sections of Russia’s real estate, industrial or production capital for pittance. He was also elected deputy of the Duma, in the Choice of Russia group (1993), then was the founder of the Democratic Choice of Russia Party (1994), member of the political bureau. He created the Civil Society Foundation (February 1996), and directed the political campaign of Boris Yeltsin who was elected to the presidential election (July 3).
Appointed head of the presidential administration (November 2), the president’s health problems propelled him for a while to the real exercise of power. Appointed First deputy Prime Minister (March 7, 1997), and Minister of Finance for a few months. He was the main negotiator with the IMF to save the tattered Russian economy which was swept away by the economic crisis, of which he was one of the leaders (1998). In the same year, he was appointed President of the EES Russia Company, grouping energy production in the country, having to reform the entire sector, linked to that of industry (1998-2007). He was appointed co-chairman of the Union of Right-wing Forces Party, at the founding of the party (2001), opposed the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a candidate for the Duma, but was not elected (2003).
He resigned from his position as co-chairman of the party (January 2004), but he took up this position again at the time of the 2007 elections, which were also a failure. His party was dissolved and joined the Right-Wing Party (November 2008). He had escaped a bomb attack (March 2005), his unpopularity in Russia as a “crook and thief” being at its peak among the Russian population. The culprits were arrested and tried, former officers members of patriotic and nationalist organizations (2006-2010), leading after three trials to their acquittal with the benefit of the doubt. He made a career as a private administrator, appointed to the International Board of J. P. Morgan Chase Bank (2018-2013), the largest financial group in the world, and also the largest investment bank in the world, one of the 4 heads of the hydra (with the Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo). The bank has made the LGBT cause one of its priorities as shown on its homepage in “Latest Stories”.
He was also managing director of the state-owned Russian Nanotechnology Corporation, ROSNANO (2008-2020), which was reformed into a joint-stock company, with branches in Switzerland and Luxembourg. He was elected to the Supreme Council of the Right-wing Party (2008-2011). During the President’s Line, a journalist asked President Putin why Chubais had not yet been prosecuted for his catastrophic management of the country’s finances and his reforms of the 90s (2013). He subsequently supported the candidacy of Andrey Netchaev of the Growth Party in the Duma elections (2016). He resigned from his posts at ROSNANO (December 2020), his successor requesting the verification of his accounts between 2010 and 2020. The company was in debt to the tune of 146 billion rubles, for loans to the tune of 290 billion. He was appointed by President Putin as special representative in charge of relations with international organizations for the achievement of the sustainable development goals (December 4, 2020), but he made a spectacular turnaround by fleeing the country (March 19, 2022), which was soon made public (March 23), and caused his dismissal by President Putin (March 25).
The reason for his flight was his disagreement about the war against Ukraine and a pro-Ukrainian position. He spent first in Turkey, then in Israel and Cyprus. He was hospitalized in Italy (July 31), suffering from Guillain-Barré syndrome (muscle and nervous system disease), then was sent to convalescence in Germany. This announcement caused the delirious spread that he would have been poisoned by the Russian special services (August), which was soon denied by all the analyzes that were carried out in vain. A judicial investigation was launched in Russia to verify the accounts and actions of Chubais during the last ten years. Several searches were carried out by the FSB (October 18). The investigation quickly led to the discovery of a corruption system where 50 million dollars were allegedly stolen by Chubais from ROSNANO (October 25).
Leonid Volkov (1980-), originally from Yekaterinburg, of Jewish origins, he studied mathematics and physics (2002-2006), he was a programmer in a private company (1998), then a senior manager (2004-2010). He was elected deputy to the City Council of Yekaterinburg (2009), integrating the Solidarity Movement. He tried to participate in the legislative elections but was not registered due to lack of signatures (2011). He emigrated to Luxembourg (2013), but finally returned to Russia (at the end of 2014), linking up with Navalny, of which he was one of the executives and advisor during his attempt to take over the mayor of Moscow.
He affirmed that a second referendum was necessary to validate the integration of Crimea into Russia (2014). He headed the campaign HEADQUARTERS of the PARNAS Party in Novosibirsk (2015), and was sentenced for a physical assault on a LifeNews correspondent, to a fine of 30,000 rubles (August 2016). He participated in numerous non-legal demonstrations, arrested 5 times, sentenced in all to 95 days in prison, in a new attempt to agitate the country by Navalny (2017). He studied at the American University of Yale, as part of the Maurice R program. Greenberg World Fellows Program (2018). The program founded in 2002 was responsible for training fellows, about 400 from 91 different countries who then had to join the ranks of “watchdogs” and more or less declared agents of the United States.
He was arrested the same year for participating in an undeclared demonstration, and sentenced to 20 days in prison (May 21, 2019). A legal case was opened against him for money laundering (August 2019), but he preferred to flee and later settled in Lithuania. He was sentenced in absentia and an international arrest warrant issued against him (2021). Another legal procedure was launched against him for the financing of an extremist and anti-Russian organization undesirable in the country (August 10). He was placed by the Russian Ministry of Justice on the list of extremists, and on the list of foreign agents or financed by foreigners (January 14 and April 22, 2022). It seems to navigate between several Western countries. He was spotted in Belgium, in Brussels, frequenting restaurants and luxury establishments, in the company of escort girls.
Ilya Yashin (1983-), a native of Moscow, he studied economics and became one of the leaders of the youth movement in the Apple Party (2000), president of the Party’s Youth (2005). He became a salaried author of American and Anglo-Saxon newspapers and media (including the New York Times or Radio Svoboda, or The Voice of America). He participated in various provocative actions, including vandalism, for example by attacking a commemorative plaque of one of the last secretaries of the PC, Yuri Andropov (August 2004), in the manner of Ukrainians attacking history and doing historical revisionism. He was appointed a member of the federal bureau of the party (2006), receiving a salary of $ 300 per month for organizing provocations and agitations in the streets.
He created for this purpose, the organization and association “Defense” (Oborona). With funds from USAID, NED and the SOROS Foundation, he actually organized hundreds of demonstrations, also going to Belarus (April 2005), where he was arrested, sentenced to a few days in prison and expelled from the country. He campaigned for the corrupt oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, then imprisoned for fraud on a very large scale in the YUKOS affair. He was excluded for having joined the Solidarity Movement (2008), where he gradually gained importance, elected to the bureau of the Political Council of the movement (December). He headed Boris Nemtsov’s campaign headquarters during the municipal elections for the city of Sochi (2009).
He joined the PARNAS party, of which he was appointed vice-president (2012), participating in illegal demonstrations with Navalny (2011-2012), in the failed attempt of colored revolution in Russia. During a search conducted at his home and various activists funded from abroad, a large sum of money was discovered, and at Ksenia Sobchak whose companion he was for a while (2012-2014). They were both able to justify themselves by demonstrating that they earned several hundred thousand euros a year (more than 2 million for Sobchak, a little less for Yashine). He condemned the return of Crimea to the Russian fold (2014), and displayed a certain contempt for the Republicans and insurgents of Donbass. He was arrested and sentenced to 15 days in prison for organizing an undeclared protest, and resisting the police during his arrest.
He appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which hastened to condemn Russia, which finally paid a total of 26 million euros in compensation. Yashin and Navalny later received another 1.5 million rubles (June 2015). He was one of the people who worked on the drafting of the report “Putin, War”, taken in part from Nemtsov’s documents, and which announced the Russian president’s intention to invade or annex Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltic countries and other Western countries (2015). He decided to leave the party, after a failed attempt to compromise him, organized by a fringe of the party led by Kasianov. Yashin left the party taking with him a third of the latter’s staff and former Nemtsov executives (2016).
He was elected to the Moscow City Council (September 10, 2017), and elected president of a city district (October 7). He was put in difficulty by his political enemies in the opposition, asking for clarification on his income, a tense subject where he had always remained discreet (2018). He announced his intention to run for mayor of Moscow, but withdrew in favor of Gudkov. He was convicted five times for organizing or participating in undeclared and illegal demonstrations (July-August 2019). He got angry and relations were quickly strained with Maxime Katz, creating even more dissensions in his entourage (2020).
He announced that he was running for his seat as a city councilor (July 2021), but when the Russian special operation was launched, he immediately took the side of Ukraine and NATO. He attacked Ramzan Kadyrov (February 2022), demanding his resignation, and created a petition that received more than 100,000 signatures in one day (obviously from Ukrainians, people with nothing to do with Russia or Chechnya or Islamist Chechens refugees in Western Europe). He announced his intention to resign from his mandate as district president following his pro-Ukrainian and anti-war positions (July 12, 2022).
He was arrested on “suspicion of spreading inaccurate information about the armed forces of the Russian Federation, and for calls to hatred [against Russia and in favor of Ukraine]” (July 13), risking up to 10 years in prison. He had, among other things, endorsed the thesis of the true false massacre of Boutcha, where the Ukrainians had mounted and organized a mass disinformation operation, by constructing from scratch “a massacre of civilians by the Russians”. He was entered by the Ministry of Justice of Russia on the list of foreign agents (July 22), his pre-trial detention was extended until November 12. In the meantime, his resignation was accepted from his mandate as district president in the city of Moscow, remaining, however, a deputy in the city council (July 27). A Moscow court decided a new extension of his detention until November 26, claiming to have gathered enough elements for the continuation of the judicial procedure and his future trial.
3rd category, useful idiots :
Maria Baranova (1984-), originally from Moscow, she completed higher studies in chemistry, laboratory assistant, then executive and director of a company, graduated by correspondence in pedagogy (2011), then in law (2016). She took part in the demonstrations of Navalny’s group, including the March of Millions which counted only a few thousand participants (2011-2012), and joined the Solidarity Movement, also becoming Ilya Ponomarev’s assistant and spokesperson. She was involved in fundraising to be paid to families victims of floods, but soon accused of corruption and picking from the coffers. She tried to join the Coordination Council of the Russian opposition and the December 5 Party, but was not chosen (October 2012). She was assaulted and beaten in the street, then hospitalized (June 11, 2013), then organized aid projects for opposition prisoners (2014).
She announced her intention to participate in the legislative elections of the Duma (February 2016), and took out a private loan of 2 million rubles for her campaign. She preferred to focus her campaign on political persecution and social problems, but, unlike others, refrained from naming President Putin. Pressure was exerted against her by the opposition to withdraw in favor of another candidate, but she refused, accusing the opposition of “ideological and political sectarianism”.
She was defeated and accused the opposition of having hindered her action and her election. She became involved in the Open Russia Movement (2016-2017), which she soon left, accusing Khodorkovsky as “damaging the reputation of the movement by his actions”. She was funded and sponsored to enter Stanford University, in California, United States (2018). She made a spectacular turnaround by being recruited by the public TV RT (2019), claiming “to want to serve her country”, then participated in various programs of the First Channel or Komsomolskaya Pravda (2019-2021). She turned her jacket back on again and resigned from the RT channel (March 2, 2022), after speaking out three days earlier against the war against Ukraine. She claimed that a nuclear war was near…
Nina Belyaeva (1989-), originally from Voronezh in Russia, in her region of origin, she participated in many actions to try to destabilize the country (2011-2012), then continued her work of undermining and local agitations the following years. She received higher education in mathematics, graduated (2013), tried to get elected to the District Council of the Voronezh region, and was not elected. She then ran for the Communist Party, but was defeated again, however claiming that she had won the election (2015). She did other studies, in law, graduated (2017-2022). She was elected as a deputy of the Voronezh District Council (2018), a member of the Communist Party, and unsuccessfully tried to be appointed head of the local administration (2020).
From the very beginning of the Russian special operation in Ukraine (February 24, 2022), she took anti-Russian and anti-war positions, in particular during public meetings or as part of her duties as a local deputy. She was put in default by another deputy, accusing him of abusing his power and using his influence to demoralize the population (March 22). She was excluded from the council by a vote of 20 votes out of 23, which was confirmed by the Parliamentary Ethics Committee. She was then condemned by the Russian Communist Party, at the national and regional level. A vote provoked a statement from the Communist Party that the statements of the deputy had nothing to do with the official position of the party, she was then excluded from the party and disavowed.
She fled Russia (April 4), settling in Latvia, and entered the law faculty (summer 2022). She then continued her intense anti-Russian activities abroad. A criminal case was launched against her for spreading false information about the actions of the armies of the Russian Federation (April 29, 2022), and an arrest warrant was issued against her. A second criminal procedure was launched against her, for “public calls for the implementation of terrorist activities and sabotage” (June 10). She declared that “every cook or bodyguard of Vladimir Putin has the opportunity to become a hero [by assassinating him]”, which triggered the launch of an international arrest warrant via Interpol (June 22).
She was sentenced in absentia in Voronezh to a prison sentence (June 24), then she announced that she would give up her duties as a deputy by making a particularly violent and accusatory public statement. During this speech she tried to make believe in the existence of a dictator in Russia and used the term “Putin’s criminal regime which has unleashed a war of aggression in Ukraine against a peaceful and democratic state” (July 18). She was placed on the list of extremists and terrorists who are enemies of Russia (August 3), then excluded from her seat as a deputy (October 21). She agreed to join the Congress of People’s Deputies (November 5-7), but left the congress slamming the door saying that documents had been forged by Ponomarev and that no democratic vote was planned. She then indicated severing all relations with this committee.
Yevgeny Domozhirov (1974-), originally from Vologda, Russia, he studied professionally and became a pastry chef. He embarked on the foundation of a company in this field, and then resumed higher studies in public administration, graduating (2005). He entered politics as the founder of the Movement Together, Freedom, Property, Responsibility (2010), then ran unsuccessfully for municipal elections. He ran for regional elections, and failed again (October 2011), and in a demonstration came into conflict with police officers who were trying to apprehend one of his friends, which led to violence. However, he was elected following the death in a car accident of one of the current deputies (December 4).
He joined the Regional anti-Corruption Commission (2012), but was caught up by the justice system in the case of beatings and injuries inflicted on police officers, sentenced to a fine of 120,000 rubles (September 17), his mandate as a deputy was finally invalidated for this conviction (November 28). He participated in the demonstrations to destabilize Russia (2012). He was then a member of the Russia of the Future Party (2013-to the present day), he was one of Alexei Navalny’s second in command. He took a stand against the war in Ukraine. He was the editor-in-chief of an opposition political newspaper SOTA, and decided to flee Russia (May 2022), certainly for Ukraine, Poland or the Baltic countries. Russia has issued an arrest warrant for him for his statements discrediting and misinformation about the Russian army and the expression of anti-Russian remarks (October 30). He was one of the participants in the Congress of People’s Deputies of Ponomarev (November 5-7, 2022).
Alexey Gorinov (1961-), originally from Moscow, he studied higher engineering, graduated (1984), then law (2004). He became involved in politics and was elected deputy in the City Council of a Moscow district (1990-1993). He joined the Solidarity Movement (around 2008-2009), and was again elected deputy in another City Council of the city of Moscow (2017-2022). In particular, he protested against the amendments to the Russian Constitution (2020). He wanted to organize a drawing contest for the neighborhood children, on the theme “children against the war in Ukraine”, and cancel the drawing contest on the Victory against Nazi Germany. He declared that the children in Ukraine would die, forgetting to mention those in Donbass, who had been murdered for 8 years.
In front of the opposition of the rest of the council, apart from his colleague and accomplice Elena Kotenochkina, he refused to vote during the transfer (March 15, 2022). It had been filmed like all municipal meetings, so he fell under the Russian laws. His colleague fled and left Russia, but he was arrested (April 26), his apartment was searched and he was put on trial for “spreading false information about the actions of the armed forces of the Russian Federation with aggravating circumstances, the offense was committed by prior agreement, using an official deputy mandate and for reasons of hatred and hostility”. He was presented before the investigating judge, and he asked for his release because he was suffering from chronic bronchitis and feared not being able to receive proper care in prison (June 1).
His request was refused, then he was sentenced to 7 years in prison and 4 years of impossibility of holding a public office (July 8). Amnesty International challenged the judgment, caring very little about the deadly and illegal actions taking place at the same time in Ukraine and committed by the SBU. Since Russia is at war with Ukraine, it is hard to see how such statements would have been tolerated in a Western country like France during the First or Second World War, if a French citizen would have made statements favorable to imperial or Nazi Germany. On appeal, the Russian justice logically remained firm and confirmed the judgment and the conviction. He then made a public statement where he confirmed his betrayal by affirming his allegiance and solidarity to the “Ukrainian people”.
Arkady Jankowski (1958-), originally from Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia, he studied electronics engineering, graduated (1980), then held various executive jobs in various private companies. During the fall of the USSR, he installed the Russian flag in the town hall of the city of Novosibirsk (August 1991). He entered politics and failed to be elected deputy in his district (1993), but was elected deputy to the Duma (1995-1999), participating in negotiations for the exchange of prisoners with Chechen Islamists. Vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation (1997-2002). Member of the Apple Party (1999), member of the Liberal Russia Party (2000). He was appointed chief inspector of the Court of Auditors of the Russian Federation (2001-2011), and pursued a half-hearted local political action. He took a stand against the war in Ukraine, and was summoned by a court to answer for his comments. He did not show up for a first hearing, then for a second, having fled the day before from Russia (March 17, 2022). He then displayed a Ukrainian flag on these profiles and a flag of the Principality of Monaco, where he would have elected his residence. He participated in the Congress of People’s Deputies motivated by Ponomarev (November 5-7, 2022).
Oleg Kashin (1980-), originally from Kaliningrad, Russia, he studied at the Naval Academy of the Fishing Fleet in his hometown, then became correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda (2001-2003), before moving to Moscow (2003). He then worked as a correspondent for the newspaper Kommersant (2004, 2009-2012), then Izvestia (2005), he participated in various dissident marches (2006-2008). He was attacked by two henchmen, and beaten with 56 blows with an iron bar, with multiple fractures and injuries, and was placed in an artificial coma undergoing two operations (November 6, 2010). He claimed to have been attacked by henchmen of the ultranationalist Nachi movement, in the New York Times (December 11, 2011). The investigation led to members of this movement and the Young Guard, three men were indicted.
He then belatedly accused the governor of Pskov, Andrey Turchak of being the sponsor (September 2015), without providing tangible evidence. However, he then published a video where one of the attackers actually claimed that Turchak was the sponsor (2018). the case was a real media melodrama, the opponents of the regime tried to make believe in an involvement of the Kremlin, and that justice was not looking for the culprits (who were nevertheless found and punished).
Strikes, agitations and provocations were organized for months, on the theme and the false idea “that there is a growing fear that Russia will announce an open hunting season for journalists opposed to power”. It is from this myth that the Western media convinced public opinion “that journalists are murdered in Russia”. He was dismissed from the Kommersant newspaper “because he stopped working as a journalist, but engaged in incompatible political activities” (November 2012).
He preferred to emigrate to Switzerland, to Geneva (May 2013), where he multiplied anti-Russian activities, publications or spaces on the Internet. However, he supported the return of Crimea to Russia and sided with the republican uprising in Donbass (2014), then returned to Russia (2015). However, he preferred to emigrate again, this time to London (April 2016), and launched an influence channel on YouTube (2019).
He hosted many programs, especially on the radio, or again for the Komsomolskaya Pravda. He announced that Russia could attack Ukraine, then that the latter had the means to conquer Crimea by force (February-March 2022). His ambivalent positions created problems for him in the West, the Navalny group classifying him in the group of Kremlin propagandists, while the Ministry of Justice put him on the list of foreign agents or financed by foreigners (June 3, 2022).
Garry Kasparov (1963-), born in Baku, Azerbaijan, to a father of Jewish origin (Weinstein family) and a mother of Armenian origin, he became one of the most talented and well-known chess players in the world. He participated in junior competitions in the USSR, he was coached by the master Alexander Nikitin (1974), and won the USSR cadet championship (1976, 1977), then finished third in the world cadet championship. He was consecrated master (January 1978), winning to everyone’s surprise the tournament in Banja Luka, Yugoslavia (1979), ranked 15th in the world. Crowned chess grandmaster in Baku (1980), junior world champion in Dortmund, member of the USSR chess Olympiad team. USSR champion (1981, 1988), medalist of the Olympiads with the USSR (1980, 1982, 1986 and 1988), then with the Russian Federation (1992, 1994, 1996, 2002), champion of Russia (2004).
He also won a number of prestigious international tournaments, but cheated during a match against the Hungarian Judith Polgar (1994). He accepted to play against a computer, one of the most powerful in the world, at the invitation of IBM and won the game four rounds against two (1996), but was beaten the following year by another IBM computer, however suspecting the company of having cheated (1997). He thus continued his career until announcing his retirement as a professional chess player.
He had been admitted to the Communist Party (1984), and following the massacres of Armenians in Baku by the Azerbaijanis (1990), he left the city and settled his family in Moscow. He accused Gorbachev of being responsible for the killings and pogrom of Armenians (Nagorno-Karabakh War), and left the Communist Party. He joined the Democratic Party of Russia (1990), and soon left this party (1991), and began a collaboration with the Wall Street Journal (1991-to the present day). He was awarded the same year with the Guardian of the Flame Award, presented by the Center of Security Policy of the United States. He joined Boris Yeltsin for the 1996 presidential election, then joined the opposition to Vladimir Putin (from 2001).
He created the United Civil Front (2005-2008), and was one of the first opponents, organizing dissident Marches (2006-2008), launching various opposition movements, but was arrested for his participation in an undeclared demonstration (September 30, 2007), sentenced to 5 days in prison. Political dissensions between opponents caused defections in his entourage (2007-2008), but he was one of the founders of the Solidarity Movement (2008). Other political dissensions appeared, he was initially excluded from the movement, but stopped the putsch and in turn had Vladimir Milov excluded.
He participated in the actions and attempts of colored revolution in Russia (2010-2012), calling for the departure of Vladimir Putin, and the holding of giant demonstrations that never came. He was arrested in connection with the case of the blasphemous group Pussy Riot (August 17, 2012), released (August 24). He joined the Opposition Coordination Council (2012-2013). He denounced the subjugation of the Solidarity Movement to the PARNAS Party, then decided to flee and announced that he would fight the Kremlin from abroad. He moved to New York in the United States, thus falling off the mask (June 2013). He denounced President Putin as having tried to influence the elections in Estonia (October). He applied for Latvian citizenship, which was denied to him at the time, but he obtained Croatian citizenship (February 2014).
He also took a stand against Iran and its regime, his internet spaces were blocked in Russia. He appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which ordered Russia to pay him 10,000 euros (2020). He took a stand against the return of Crimea to Russia (March 2014), and went to Kiev to support Ukraine against the Donbass insurgents, playing for the Day of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (December 6). He wrote a book Winter is coming, why we must stop Vladimir Putin and the enemies of the Free world (2015), and proclaimed his admiration for US President Ronald Reagan. He founded a Free Russia Forum, holding congresses and conferences in Vilnius, Lithuania and funded by USAID and the CIA of which it became very clear that he was a long-time agent (2016).
He called on Russian voters to boycott the presidential election (2018), and the same year attacked President Donald Trump in a collection of essays by American propagandists for the most part: Fight for Liberty, Defending Democracy in The Age of Trump. He pushed the betrayal even further by becoming a member of the Anti-war Committee of Russia (February 2022), and was placed by the Ministry of Justice of Russia on the list of foreign agents or funded by abroad. He founded the Russian Action Committee, joining forces with other opponents in the idea of forming a hypothetical government in exile. He was strongly criticized by Ponomarev who denounced his committee as “that of inaction”.
Maxim Katz (1984-), originally from Moscow, of Jewish origins, he moved with his parents to Israel (1991), but preferred to return to Russia (2001), then did higher studies in Moscow and Denmark. He became a professional poker player, becoming one of the best players in the country, champion of Russia (2007), influencer on YouTube (2008-to the present day), he was the first political candidate to make himself known in Russia via social networks. He did private urban planning studies which were sent to town halls and had a certain influence in Moscow and St. Petersburg (parking lots, pedestrian zones, etc.). He entered politics as a candidate for municipal elections in a small town, elected deputy (2012). He participated in the marches organized by Nemtsov and Navalny, of which he was once one of the executives (2013).
He was excluded from Navalny’s circle for threatening to call law enforcement agencies if the militants continued on the path of illegal actions. He ran in the Moscow municipal elections (2014), defeated by a United Russia candidate. An attempt to bring him closer to Navalny was rejected by the latter, considering him insecure and temperamental. He joined the Citizens’ Initiative Party (2015), and participated in the regional elections in Kaluga. He received a scholarship from the British government and studied social sciences in Glasgow (2016). On his return he joined the Apple Party (September), then was admitted to the federal office of the party. He headed the campaign HQ of Deputy Gudkov running for the Duma, and the campaign was awarded with a Pollie Award, presented by American political advisers, in the category “foreign languages”, as well as the International Best in Show award.
He went to Los Angeles to receive the award. Political dissensions arose quickly, so he and his wife were excluded from the party “for having caused political damage” (February 7, 2017). He created with Gudkov an organization “United Democrats”, with the aim of helping future political candidates register, collect signatures, receive money, equipment and support, with the aim of the upcoming municipal elections in 2017 (March). The project was aimed only at candidates who were clearly opposed to Vladimir Putin. Out of 3,500 applications, 999 candidates were supported, 267 were elected in 62 of the 125 districts of Moscow. Of the 267 elected, 177 were candidates of the Apple Party, so he was reinstated in the party (April 13, 2018). Shortly before the tea towel burned with Gudkov (January).
The latter denounced him as using his internet spaces to capture the personal data of his fans and especially “the use of scripts that automatically activate the microphones of computers, so that he can collect potentially compromising information on all visitors. All the recorded audios are then stored on a dedicated server, probably, they are still stored there“. He was appointed chairman of the North-western district of the party in Moscow (December 1), then chairman of the party branch in St. Petersburg (2019), managing to place 99 municipal deputies in the city.
He again came into conflict with the party, from which he was excluded after trying once again to phagocytize it and take control “with his fans” (February 21, 2020). He tried to convince the party to support young candidates from his circle, but was accused of putting pressure on companies and people, harming the interests of the Party. Katz indeed, through a YouTube channel, had a large community of dedicated and hard-working fans at his disposal, which he used as a political weapon. He organized a kind of independent compensation fund to support activists facing justice (2021). He fled to Israel (2022), and was placed on the list of anti-Russian foreign agents (July 22), then also on the Ukrainian Kill list as an enemy of the Ukrainian state (October 4), for having criticized the government of that country publicly.
Anton Kostromichev (1969-), originally from Sevastopol, Crimea, but having then moved to Moscow (around 2002), he did higher technical studies, at the higher school of naval engineering in Sevastopol, graduated (1991). He then served in the fleet of the Russian Federation, as a submariner officer, in particular on board the famous Kursk (90s-until 2002). He held various senior management positions in various companies, to become general manager of Mistral SARL. He entered politics in the Apple Party, a member of the party’s political bureau, he was an elected candidate for the City Council of a district of the city of Moscow (Tushino, 2017-2022). The popular support for this deputy is in the image of his YouTube channel, i.e. 10 subscribers, for 9 videos filmed during his 5 years of deputation. He was one of the participants in the Congress of People’s Deputies motivated by Ponomarev, in support of Ukraine and trying to form “a government in exile from Russia” (November 5-7, 2022). It seems that he is still in Russia.
Elena Kotenochkina (1977-), originally from Moscow, Russia, she was elected deputy in the City Council of a district of the Russian capital. She made statements of rare violence against Russia, declaring that “Russia is a fascist state”, and publishing posts where she called President Zelensky “her president”. A legal case was opened against her for the dissemination of false information about the army of the Russian Federation. In council, together with the other deputies of her district, she discussed the advisability of creating a children’s drawing contest on the theme “children against the war in Ukraine”, as a sign of protest against “Fascist Russia”, while canceling the one planned for the Victory of 1945 against Nazi Germany (March 15, 2022). She was followed only by another deputy of the council, the rest including the despicable manipulation of children who should never be involved in politics (but what Ukraine has already been practicing for a long time). Since the council meeting was filmed for archiving, it served as evidence for the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation to initiate legal proceedings against him and his colleague Alexei Gorinov.
Asked by the RT media about the fact that she had called Russia a fascist country, she preferred to hang up on the journalist’s nose (April 6). The latter remarked that he did not understand why she had not given her opinion, when she was just complaining about not having the floor in “her… fascist country”. She fled to an unknown destination, having not responded to her summons before the court (April). Gorinov was braver and remained alone to answer the prosecutor’s accusations. An arrest warrant was issued against her (June 8), then she was sentenced by a Russian court in absentia “for the dissemination of false information about the armies of the Russian Federation, with aggravating circumstances and the abuse of power by using a position of deputy of a city Council” She was one of the participants in the Congress of People’s Deputies installed in Poland and motivated by Ponomarev (November 5-7, 2022). Her current location is not known, probably in the Baltic states, Poland or Ukraine, she faces up to 10 years in prison in the current state of the charges against her.
Lyudmila Kotesova (1947-), originally from Vologda, Russia, she completed higher studies in law, doctor. She became head of the justice department of the Chukchi Autonomous Region (1991). She joined the ranks of Boris Yeltsin’s supporters (1993), but disappointed by his party she preferred to take off. She was elected deputy to the Council of the Russian Federation, the Federal Assembly (1993-1996), and participated in opposition movements, in particular in the Movement of Lawyers for human rights and a decent life. She ran for the legislative elections in Vologda, for the Duma, but was not elected (4.83% of the votes, 9th place, 1996). She founded her own law firm in Vologda (1996), then joined the Bloc of the Union of Right-wing forces at the time of the parliamentary elections (1999), candidate in Vologda, she was not elected (9.93% of the votes, 3rd place).
She founded a law firm in Moscow (2003), and joined the Union of Patriots of Russia Party, on the list of legislative candidates, 4th on the list, she was not elected and her party experienced a real rout (0.3% of the vote). She filed a complaint for violation of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and was dismissed (2004). She then ran more modestly in the regional elections in Vologda, but was not elected (March 11, 2007). She then devoted herself mainly to her activities as a lawyer, defending numerous cases of various kinds. She took a stand against the war in Ukraine (2022), and participated in the Congress of People’s Deputies of Ponomarev, seeking to form a “government in exile of Russia” (November 5-7). It is not certain whether she remained in Russia.
Vasily Kryukov (1972-), originally from Izhevsk, Russia, with a Russian father and a German mother. He studied professionally, then completed his military service in the Soviet Army (1990-1992). On his return to civilian life, he completed higher studies in Geography (1993-1999), he then entered politics in the ranks of the Russian ultranationalists and neo-Nazis. He was elected deputy to the Izhevsk City Council (2005-2010). He was prosecuted in a court case, for having beaten 14 police officers during a search of his office (2006-2009). President of the Russian National Union in Izhevsk (until September 2011), President of OURO, an association for the perpetuation of the memory of the Izhvesk-Votkinsky uprising, he was also head of the regional organization Fatherland Common Sense (2010-2011).
A new search was ordered at his home, in his office, at the home of his ultranationalist friends, leading to the seizure of numerous computers, documents and equipment (March 4, 2011). The investigation and analysis of the seized documents caused him to be indicted for “inciting national discord” (April 25), but he fled and took refuge in Germany, where he applied for political asylum (2011-2014), which he finally obtained (November 2014). In the meantime, he had come out of the shadows by giving a short interview to a Russian blogger, where he affirmed “that he was not a fascist, but a Russian nationalist” (August 2014). In the meantime, he supported the American Maidan in Ukraine, got closer to the neo-Nazis of Azov, the Pravy Sektor or the National Socialist Party of Ukraine, and gave an interview to Radio Svoboda, a neo-Nazi media very active in Ukraine.
He then explained in another interview to the Fraction of Russian Nationalists how: “he had become a Russian nationalist, worked as a deputy, then was persecuted and fled Russia. Three generations of my ancestors were repressed, I have a Russian father and a German mother, and on both sides there were repressed, shot, expelled and deported. My mother was born in 1940, she survived the deportation, and had a certificate of victim of political repression. When my case started, I realized that they would come and get me soon and that they would lock me up in a detention center, I left“.
He continued by embroidering on his ancestors victims of the Soviets, and by continuing for whole pages the story of the deportations, trying to make it seem that this system still existed today in Russia, under the aegis of Vladimir Putin. He then continued on his story, regretting according to him that the Russian Federation is the continuation of the USSR (April 25, 2016). He then vegetated for a long time in the mediocrity of this movement, claiming to be a true Russian nationalist and patriot displaying himself on video with film images of a Nazi salute, and a badge of the ROA, the Russian collaborationist army, or Vlasov army, serving Hitler’s Germany (2016-2022).
Most of his activity took place on YouTube with a channel with about 2,500 subscribers. He regained a chance to show himself and took a stand against the war and supported the Ukrainian and NATO position (2022). He then participated in the Congress of People’s Deputies organized by Ponomarev in Poland (November 5-7). It was displayed mainly with the flag of Imperial Russia, but now appears a lot with the flag of the Russian Legion of Freedom, a phantom unit of Russian collaborationists with Ukraine.
Alexander Osovtsov (1957-), a native of St. Petersburg and of Jewish origins, he completed higher studies in philosophy, professor at the university (1979-1982), doctor (1986), scientific editor in a specialized journal (1986-1990), deputy of the City Council (1990-1993), he was appointed Commissioner of the movement for the respect of the State of Emergency during the putsch (August 1991). He was a professor at the Moscow International University (1992), then entered politics in the Democratic Russia movement. He was elected deputy to the Duma (1993), then passed through various liberal and “democratic” formations, re-elected (1995). He took a stand in favor of the Islamists of Chechnya, and was a voluntary hostage of Basayev’s gang in Budennovsk (1995). He became an advisor to the Most holding (1996-2002), then moved to the Apple Party (2002).
He was a candidate for the Duma declaring then an income of more than $ 50,000 per month (2003). He participated in various dissident marches (2006-2008), and especially in the organization of conferences “Other Russia”, which was held in St. Petersburg and was financed by American foreign funds, in particular the National Endowment for Democracy (NED, subsidiary of USAID) and the Soros Foundation (June 2006). He participated in the creation of the democratic Solidarity movement (December 2008), which he soon left (2010). He signed a petition calling for the departure of President Vladimir Putin, then switched to the Civic Platform Party (2013), whose headquarters he headed before being dismissed (2014).
He took a stand against the return of Crimea to Russia, and even more extremist, against the insurrection of the populations of Donbass. He preferred to leave Russia to settle in Israel, in Jerusalem, of which he later obtained citizenship (2017). He participated in the Congress of People’s Deputies motivated by Ponomarev, having sided with Ukraine and with the idea of the possible formation of a “government of Russia in exile” (November 5-7, 2022). He was also vice-president of the Russian Jewish Congress.
Natalya Pelevina (1976-), originally from Moscow, Russia, her family moved to the United Kingdom (1988), and she did higher studies in London, especially in history, graduated (1994 and 2000), also taking acting classes, comedy, she became a screenwriter. She wrote a play about the terrorist attack of Chechen Islamists during a concert in Moscow (2002). She founded a production company (2004), then her play which was translated into Russian was banned in Dagestan (2008), but was performed in Moscow. She then toured the world, especially in the United States (2011), and became a political weapon to condemn Russia. She emigrated to the United States, where she became associated with various political figures of the Russian opposition, becoming involved in organizations (late 2000s).
She strangely decided to return to Russia (2012), and devoted herself to purely political activities, it is likely that she had been recruited by the CIA. She became involved in the defense of human rights, participated in passing information to the United States in order to punish personalities (Magnitsky Law), then was one of the founders of the December 5th Party (2012). She left her party and joined the PARNAS party (2015), elected to the party’s Federal Council (July). Meanwhile, she had been raided, a spy gadget was discovered in her home, namely a pen that could also be used as a video recorder, as well as documents proving the financing of her organization and its activities by the NED (a branch of USAID, April 2015).
She was prosecuted for “espionage” (March 10, 2016), and tried to campaign for the elections that year, which were a disaster for the party. His program included: integration into the European Union, the abandonment of the Crimea, the Republicans of Donbass, decentralization, the end of a conscription army. She was trapped by Internet hackers who sent videos and photos to the NTV channel. The latter revealed a conversation of her during sexual antics with Mikhail Kasionov making a vitriolic portrait of Navalny or Ilya Yashin, as well as other party executives. The first was described as “a Nazi’s dog”, the second as “finished shit”. The images went around the country showing his sexual relations with Kasionov, leader of the PARNAS Party, not to mention many photos of the couple in Adam and Eve outfits (April 1, 2016).
The hackers then published photos taken from his mobile phone (of a sexual nature), but also his SMS messages, or his conversations on WhatsApp. She asked for the video to be deleted, but could not get satisfaction, and published a video on YouTube and announced a legal attack against NTV (September 30, 2017). She had resigned from her positions within the party, defended herself weakly following the tide of articles that commented on her disappointment. She tried to attack in particular by asserting that “Crimea was in my opinion, and is still a Ukrainian territory due to the fact that its annexation is contrary to all existing international agreements, and therefore I do not think it possible for me to accept this annexation“. In reality, the media coup mounted against her killed her in the media and she then disappeared from the media, with very rare interventions until 2017, then the void.
Andrey Pivovarov (1981-), originally from Saint-Petersburg, Russia, he studied economics, graduated (2003), entrepreneur, he founded the first bar of the Russian opposition, called Svoboda (Freedom). He entered politics in the Union of Right-wing Forces Party (2003-2006), then moved to the Democratic People’s Union of Russia (2007-2011). He was part of the Coordination Council of the Russian opposition (2012-2013), then getting involved in the RPR-PARNAS Party (2015). He was arrested for illegal access to information from a police terminal, following the corruption of a police officer (September 25), sentenced and convicted (June 2016), fined 1.5 million rubles and banned from holding public office for a year and a half. Candidate for the parliamentary elections in St. Petersburg (2016), for the PARNAS party, convicted several times for participating in undeclared demonstrations (2018).
He was elected president of the Open Russia organization (March 25), then executive director (2019), funded by NED and USAID, the main organization for infiltration and financing by the Americans of agents who must prepare and direct a hypothetical colored revolution in Russia. He was arrested at the border while trying to reach Poland (May 31, 2021), sentenced to two months in prison for his participation in Open Russia, and especially for new attempts to raise foreign funds. He was a candidate on the list of the Apple Party in the 2021 elections, but was again caught up by the justice system (October 11, 2021). He was sentenced to 4 years in prison and 8 years of prohibition of political activities following his participation in the organization of Open Russia and its anti-Russian activities (July 15, 2022), however the prosecutor general had requested 5 years in prison.
Maxim Resnick (1974-), originally from Saint-Petersburg, Russia, he studied history, graduated (1996), then in the civil service (1997), vice-president of the Committee on Family, Childhood and Youth of the administration of the city of Saint-Petersburg (1997-1999). He resigned having joined the Apple Party and the ranks of the opposition, founder of the Youth Union of the Apple Party in St. Petersburg, he was elected to the City Council (2000), vice-president of the local branch of the party, then president (2002-2012). He attacked the Fair Russia Party, accusing it of being a political formation of the Kremlin (2011), elected deputy in the parliamentary elections (December 4). He was finally excluded from the Apple Party (December 8, 2012), “for fraud during the counting of votes in his election as deputy, and for supporting close friends who received false mandates“.
He took a stand against the return of Crimea to Russia, and supporting the Maidan, forming with other opponents an anti-war Committee hostile to the republican uprising in Donbass (2014). He switched to the Growth Party, re-elected under this label to his seat (September 18, 2016), then was arrested during an undeclared demonstration, he was sentenced to 10 days in prison and fined for his participation and for resisting the police (2017). He was arrested again during the march on May 1, behaving verbally violently and being under the influence of alcohol or drugs (2019).
He then left his party (2021), to join the Apple Party again (March 23). He was arrested for consumption and possession of marijuana from two cannabis plants. He was placed under house arrest and was unable to participate in the September legislative elections (June 18, 2021 – April 20, 2022). He denounced his former party as supporting Russia’s foreign policy. He fled Russia, which he declared on social networks (September 2022).
Ksenia Sobchak (1981-), originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, daughter of the mayor of St. Petersburg (1991-1996), and a senator. She did graduate studies in international relations (1998-2004), obtaining several diplomas. It was his father who introduced Vladimir Putin to Boris Yeltsin, and the future president protected the Sobchak family for years, especially after his father’s death. She became a very prominent actress and host, in many television channels, visible on countless sets and shows (2004-to the present day). She published, collaborated or wrote a number of books, around fashion, beauty, and other light themes (2008-2010). She had also started a long acting career (2004-2021), acting in more than 25 films. She became involved in politics in the Russian opposition, and was a member of the Opposition Coordination Council (2011-2013).
She said about her betrayal of President Putin: “that she appreciated the man who had helped her father and his family in a difficult time, but that she did not sympathize with the politician“. A search of her home, in the context of attempts to destabilize Russia (June 2012), discovered 1 million euros, 480,000 dollars and 500,000 rubles in cash. To justify the presence of these liquidities, she claimed that she earned more than 2 million euros a year and that this money was her stocking stuffer. In the meantime, she had lost all her contracts with federal television (August 2012). She presented her candidacy to the Coordination Council of the Russian opposition, and was elected in 4th position behind Navalny, Bukov, and Kasparov (September).
She took rather moderate positions, advocating dialogue with the government. Therefore, she was sometimes considered as “a false opponent”. She met with President Putin at his request, after having previously been refused (September 2013), sealing a reconciliation and was invited to participate in the President’s Line, where she asked rather uncomfortable questions for the president. She had embarked on business, in various fields including real estate, commerce, fishing and breeding of Kamchatka king crabs, catering with a restaurant and a cafe on one of the most chic avenues in Moscow (both closed in 2018). She went to Kiev during the Maidan events (winter 2013-2014), in charge of interviewing political figures, then took ambiguous positions about the Crimea (2014-2015).
Much later, she declared that the return of Crimea to the Russian fold was illegal, in a lecture given at the University of Oxford in Great Britain, and took a position in favor of sanctions against Russia. She proposed that Russia give up Crimea to Ukraine and that a new referendum be organized under the control of international observers (2017-2018). She asked the Ukrainians for permission to conduct a political campaign in Crimea, which was denied to her, and was even put on the Mirotvorets kill list for illegal crossing of the Ukrainian border, manipulation of information and politics.
She was a member of the political bureau of the Citizens’ Initiative Party and ran as a candidate for the presidency of the Russian Federation (2018), she was not elected (1.68% of the votes). She had linked up with Dmitry Gudkov for the refoundation of the Open Russia Movement, an organization that was previously banned in Russia, linked to the NED, USAID and the CIA and which in the 90s-2000s financed projects and NGOs in Russia “for the defense of democracy”. She had published the same year the book Sobchak against All. She launched an influence channel on YouTube with Sobchak (January 2019), soon gathering hundreds of thousands of fans (more than 3.2 million, more than 670 million views).
She was enthusiastic about the election of Zelensky as Ukrainian president. She decided not to publish any more videos on her YouTube channel, following the law repressing anti-Russian comments, supporting Ukraine or spreading false information about the Russian army and the military situation (March 4, 2022), but very quickly reversed her decision, cautiously attacking the partial mobilization. An Israeli newspaper revealed that Sobchak had applied for and obtained Israeli citizenship (April 9), playing on his maternal origins. She reacts immediately by denying having applied for this nationality. She was worried in a case of corruption and extortion of funds in the ROSTEKH case (October). She fled Russia, passing to Belarus, then to Lithuania using an Israeli passport (October 22), but returned to Russia (November 17), to exonerate herself of the suspicions existing against her, and publicly apologizing, finding herself pregnant, a rain of articles and mocking comments then fell on her.
Andrey Zubov (1952-), originally from Moscow, son of a rear admiral, he completed higher studies in history, two doctorates (1978 and 1989), professor of history, specialist in theology and orthodoxy, he worked among others at MGIMO (1994-2014). He was the author of numerous articles and publications for numerous newspapers, magazines, publications, etc. He was dismissed for criticizing the return of the Crimea to the Russian fold, drawing a historical parallel of rare violence and talking about the Anschluss (March 1, 2014). He had also shown himself at the anti-war Congress of intellectuals of Russia (March 19). The decision was canceled by the equivalent of the Labor Council in Russia (April 11), however his contract was not renewed coming to an end (June 30).
He defended the Ukrainians and especially, very rarely in Russia, that of the Ukrainian Nazi collaborator Bandera, responsible for terrible massacres of Jews, Slavs, Romanians and Gypsies, declaring that “Bandera was the greatest example of the lie of the Soviet system” (July). He then gave lectures and courses, was a columnist (2014-2022), regularly showing himself in the ranks of the opposition. He was invited to Ukraine, where he was awarded the title of honorary Doctor of the University of Kiev (2014), then of the Masaryk University of Brno in the Czech Republic.
Igor Volobuev (1972-), citizen of Russia, but from a father who was born in the city of Sumy in Ukraine. Former senior executive of the Russian company Gazprom (employed since at least 2006), company spokesman leading the press service (for 9 years), vice-president of Gazprombank, he resigned from his post and left Moscow, leaving his family there to join Ukraine (March 2, 2022). After passing through Turkey, Latvia and then Poland, he finally managed to enter Ukraine after many difficulties. He caused a huge scandal when he was staged by the Ukrainian media (April 26), and made violent anti-Russian statements, denouncing the government of the Russian Federation, as well as the Gazprom company.
He declared that “he had always felt Ukrainian“, and that his father and brother still lived in the Sumy region. Then also declared: “I came to Ukraine to defend my hometown of Akhtyrka with weapons in hand. Back in 2014, when the Crimea was occupied, I swore to myself that if the Russian tanks came to my city, I would fight against the Russians“.
His flight from Russia also corresponded to a second divorce, motivated by his wife (April 2022), a senior executive also from the Gazprom company (since at least 2000). He declared that he had lost all his money, first because Russian bank cards did not work abroad, then that his bank accounts had been emptied in Russia, complaining despite his obvious betrayal of this measure (May 2). He announced that he was joining the ranks of the Russian Legion of Freedom, a unit of collaborators and defectors in the manner of Vlasov’s collaborationist army. But he took his time at the back and apparently stayed in Kiev disappearing from the media radars.
4th category, propagandists of Gender ideology, LGBT and pedocriminals :
Alexandra (Kaï) Katonina (1990-), originally from Russia, transgender and LGBT activist, she studied higher education and became a designer. She went into exile in Berlin during the years 2010-2020. According to The Village magazine, she is the creator of the flag of the Legion of Freedom of Russia, taken over to replace the official Russian flag. She stated in the magazine: “We discussed for a long time with friends what a symbol of protest against the Russian special operation could be and decided on our choice on the flag. I started a discussion on Facebook where different ideas were proposed. The post on my wall has been hanging since February 28, it seems to me that I was the first to publish the idea of a white-blue-white flag”, claiming “to have fought the regime all her life as best she could”. A demonstration of anti-Russian and pro-Ukrainian activists was displayed in Prague with the famous flag (March 28, 2022).
Mikhail Svetov (1985-), originally from Moscow, he completed higher studies in history and law, in Moscow (2004-2006), then in Great Britain, University of Nottingham, graduated (2007). He joined the Russian Libertarian party (2009-2010), then moved to Japan for a while (2010-2016), graduated from the New Zealand Film Academy (2016). Returning to Moscow, he became one of the members of the political bureau of the Libertarian party (2017-2019), then a member of the ethics committee (2020). He met with US Senator Rand Paul, also a libertarian, to discuss the best ways to take down Russia, its president and his circle, in particular by targeting sanctions not on Russians, but on personalities defending Putin’s position (August 2018). He gave dozens of conferences in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine (2018-2020), increasing in media power.
He was prosecuted for pedophile publications published on his social networks (featuring a 16-year-old minor), and his home raided (summer-fall 2019). He had campaigned at a younger age for the age of sexual maturity of young girls to be lowered and had founded a “Pro Nymphette” website (2005-2009), and made statements about the fact that a teenager “would do better to sleep with her teacher to get defecated than with a fool in her class, or even worse“. The site included photos of teenage girls aged 13-14 and was closed by him after a certain smell of sulfur spread around his reputation and “accumulated behind him” and especially by his entry into the Libertarian Party.
In fact, the pedophile qualifier was henceforth the one that was most used towards him by his detractors from that date on. He was finally acquitted with the benefit of the doubt, the evidence being insufficient and dating back several years. He was fined 30,000 rubles for organizing an undeclared rally in Moscow, and his apartment raided (April 25, 2021). He preferred to “emigrate” to South America (June), and settled in Brazil, then in Panama, then in Chile. He founded a libertarian internet media SVTV (2022), which from the beginning of the Russian special operation began to spread pro-Ukrainian propaganda (265,000 subscribers, 41 million views).
At the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia, the site was blocked in the Russian Federation (March 16). In his various statements, he indicated that he was for traditional relations, against feminist ideology, LGBT, but also against multinational Russia, which he does not consider as a nation, but as a cultural community, wishing the destruction of Russian patriotism, the central power and the liquidation of Russia as a nation, to be fragmented. His only declared ally, the rest of the opposition not worth much according to his numerous public criticisms, is Alexei Navalny. He was placed by the Russian Ministry of Justice on the list of foreign agents or financed by abroad, in this case here Ukraine (November 18).
Laurent Brayard
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