Participants

Discussion

Is it possible to find any common and potentially policy-relevant vision among opponents of Russiaʼs war of aggression in Ukraine? As a positive note, it can be stated that the three central political actors in the containment of imperialist war-making Russia – Ukraine, Western policymakers and the most visible Russian opposition actors in exile – agree on Vladimir Putinʼs guilt and responsibility for the war and war crimes. However, this is not enough in a situation where Russiaʼs military superiority and Putinʼs intransigence is obvious. This has led to a situation especially on the part of Ukraine, where demands in resisting Russian aggression have expanded to concern Russian society as a whole and the Russian state in a broader historical perspective, where Putin only embodies a general European and global security problem called Russia.

Ukraineʼs contradictory approach to request Russians to act more actively to oppose the war or to help Ukraine militarily while putting emphasis on Russians collective guilt is completely understandable. This emotionally justified demonization of Russia and fantasies about the countryʼs disintegration have partially forced exiled Russian opposition activists to emphasize the anti-war sentiments of millions of Russians repressed by Putinʼs terror, and belief in the possibility of democracy after Putin. This sharp division is further enhanced by the Western contradictory views concerning the means of ending the war and a general lack of vision for Russia after Putin.

This roundtable maps views of the three levels of anti-Putin actors – Ukraine, the EU, and the Russian opposition in exile – by discussing structural conditions that shape the current debate and the understanding of both Russia and the Putinist regime, and the evolution and prospects of the policy visions of the key anti-Putin actors.