Newsletters / Mikhail Khodorkovsky: Berlin conference of the Russian Antiwar Committee – we are the resistance!
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Russians opposing Putin’s war can’t work openly in Russia anymore. From exile, they support Ukraine, political prisoners, and home resistance. Two weeks ago, the Russian Antiwar Committee in Berlin charted a new path for antiwar forces.
Here’s what’s next:
The conference in Berlin proved that the Russian anti-war movement is growing stronger. Grassroots projects are expanding, ties with international organisations are getting deeper, and advocates are finding ways to get European leaders to listen.
Immediate action for Ukrainian POWs is our priority. We demand access for humanitarian organisations, proper treatment under the Geneva Conventions, an “all-for-all” exchange to bring prisoners of war home safely, and international monitors to ensure these standards are met.
Our five-point strategy includes uniting democratic Russians globally, supporting civil resistance at home, partnering with democratic institutions to pressure the regime and assist its victims, advancing truth through media and combating Kremlin propaganda, and continuing to deliver humanitarian aid to Ukrainians.
The conference also sets new standards for financial transparency. We urge all anti-war and democratic organisations to publicly disclose their sources of funding and how they spend it. Organisations with $250K+ annual budgets must undergo independent audits. We believe in building trust through openness.
It is essential to continue supporting Russians at home who resist the war: teachers, doctors, poets. There are 4,500+ political prisoners in Russia, including 54 children — their resistance despite incredibly high stakes shows that another Russia is possible.
We are expanding our network of “consuls” to help Russians abroad, starting with Germany. New AI solutions will help people fleeing conscription or prison for their anti-war positions to navigate complex immigration systems in foreign countries.
Documenting evidence of torture in Russian prisons. We’ll continue organising exhibitions and media campaigns to demonstrate the way prisoners are treated under Putin and demand international accountability so these atrocities cannot be hidden or ignored.
Democracy requires allies: we’ll keep pushing the envelope in places like the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Brussels dialogue with the European Parliament and Commission to secure tangible support from democracies worldwide to stop Putin’s war.
Our goal remains clear: to build a Russia that upholds international law, respects human rights, and honours the sovereignty of its neighbours.
We’re fighting tirelessly on every front — legal, political, humanitarian, and informational — to end the war in Ukraine and to establish a democratic future, a true alternative to Putin’s regime.
This work is undeniably challenging, but it is worth every effort. We believe in collective action and uniting beyond ideological differences. We’ll address our differences in a new Russian parliament; right now, ending the war and returning to democracy is our focus.
I welcome the decision by the members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to formally back the Russian democratic opposition and urge the entire Assembly to join. You can’t build the democratic Russia of tomorrow without supporting those fighting for it today.
In the media:
“Today – we are the resistance”. Mikhail Khodorkovsky speaks with Maxim Kurnikov for BILD (in Russian)
Mikhail Khodorkovsky in conversation with Dr. Agnia Grigas at the Warsaw Security Forum: “Russia-West Relations in Years to Come.”
No reason to fear Russia’s collapse if Putin is removed, says Khodorkovsky
