A leading anti-Putin activist has urged Russia’s rebel parliament to create a government in exile, claiming it is an essential step in destroying the autocrat’s regime.
Delegates from the Congress of People’s Deputies (CPD) held their sixth session in Warsaw over the weekend, to further their plans to bring down Putin and his regime.
One of the speakers at the four-day session was Ruslan Kutaev, a Chechen rebel leader, fighting against Ramzan Kadyrov’s brutal dictatorship in his homeland.
In a fiery and impassioned speech, the Chechen fighter urged delegates to step up their campaign against Putin by creating a parallel government.
He argued such a move would facilitate a general unification of all Russian opposition movements that would ultimately lead to the overthrowing of Putin.
He also said the move would give ordinary Russians confidence that Putin’s overthrow would not lead to chaos and would increase public support for regime change.
“It is very important for Russians to understand that this is not a game,” he told the Express on the sidelines of the conference.
“That here are very serious people who are determined to decisively defeat Putin’s regime and overthrow his power.
“So I am proposing to immediately create a government headed by an acting Prime Minister.
“This will accelerate the unification (of the opposition) and the involvement of huge other resources against Putin.”
The Congress consists of over 70 former national and local deputies who gathered between them some 5 million votes in previous Russian elections that were still deemed competitive and free.
Deputies are drawing up a new constitution for a future democratic Russia, saying they are laying the legal foundations that will ensure democracy has a chance to thrive in a post-Putin state.
They see themselves as a parliament-in-waiting that will become the highest organ of state power until new elections can be held in the wake of Putin’s removal from power.
Ilya Ponomarev, a member of the CPD’s executive council, urged the various factions of Russia‘s opposition to unite and stop fighting among themselves.
He told the Express: “I am (offering)to all other members of the opposition to sit at one round table and come to an agreement.
“Let us move forward as a coordinated team – not as one political party obviously because everybody has different opinions but as a coordinated team, where everyone has their specific responsibilities.”