Grigory Yavlinsky, a veteran Russian democratic politician, is calling for peace with Ukraine and mounting what may be the last challenge to President Putin in his political career.
Mr. Yavlinsky, who has run for president in Russia three times so far, is considering challenging Mr. Putin in next year’s presidential election. However, in the last election in 2018, he only received around 1% of the vote, so even if he were to run this time, he has no illusions about the outcome.
“I can tell you the result now. Voter turnout was 75%, and Mr. Putin got 78%,” Yavlinsky said in an online interview from Moscow.
On the 7th, the Russian Senate set the date for the presidential election as March 17 next year. Mr. Putin is widely expected to announce his candidacy for a fifth term, with government officials determined to win a landslide victory to demonstrate public support for the war in Ukraine. Nearly all the politicians who oppose him are in prison or abroad, and voices like Yavlinski’s are barely surviving on the fringes of the political debate.
Mr. Grigory Yavlinsky
Photographer: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images
The 71-year-old founder of the democratic party Yabloko met with Putin for the first time in about two years on October 26. The meeting lasted for an hour and a half and involved “very serious conversations.” He explained to Putin the need for a cease-fire and peace negotiations, but “no conclusion was reached.”
Yavlinsky said Putin is suffering from “Versailles syndrome” as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) continues to expand toward Russia’s borders since the collapse of the Soviet Union. He likened the situation to Germany, where dissatisfaction with reparations after World War I allowed Hitler to rise to power.
But Yavlinski’s main message is to urge the United States and its allies to negotiate an end to Europe’s worst war since World War II. He said the negotiations were “about preserving 80% of the territory” that Ukraine currently controls. Ukraine has struggled to regain territory from Russia, and the war has been at a stalemate for the past year.
Peace talks “may begin within a month, or may take a year or two, but the time will come. It is inevitable,” he said, adding: “We need to stop people from dying. We are paying a terrible price and the destruction of Ukraine continues.”
news-rsf-original-reference paywall">Original title:Putin’s Last Liberal Critic Says Deal to End War Is ‘Inevitable’(excerpt)
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2023-12-07 14:45:19
