Ilya Yashin is a leading figure in the Russian People’s Freedom Party. | Getty Putin opponent to Trump: Don't abandon Ukraine

A leading Russian opposition politician and critic of Vladimir Putin has a message for the incoming Trump administration: don’t trade Ukraine for a deal in Syria.

Ilya Yashin warns that any detente with Russia that includes permitting its 2014 annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine to stand -- even in return for withdrawing its military support for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad -- would be a blow to the Russian democracy movement and only embolden the Kremlin, including possibly to threaten a NATO country.


“Putin could yield to the U.S. his positions in Syria in exchange for [recognition] by President Trump of Ukraine as the area of Russian influence,” Yashin, a leading figure in the Russian People’s Freedom Party, predicted in an interview with POLITICO. “Which is extremely dangerous.”

“Ukraine should not be an exchange coin … in this global political game."

Yashin, 33, who entered politics in 2000, co-founded the civic youth organization Oborona and worked with the prominent opposition figure Boris Nemtsov in the Solidarity and Freedom Party movements.

Nemtsov was assassinated in 2015 in Moscow outside the Kremlin in what Yashin calls a "terrorist act" to intimidate the democracy movement in Russia, which in his estimation Putin tolerates only to a point so that he can convince the world that Russia is not a dictatorship.

Yashin spoke out against the government’s claim that radical Islamists were behind the murder of Nemtsov and has been jailed multiple times for his anti-Putin activities.

He was in Washington this week to meet with members of Congress and think tanks, where he expressed concerns about the ties to the Russian regime of some of the president-elect's advisers, including secretary of State- designee Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of ExxonMobil who has personal ties to the Russian leader, and National Security Adviser-to-be Mike Flynn.

"We keep hearing what Trump and Putin keep telling about each other," Yashin said through a translator. "We cannot but notice the members of the new administration who came from business and this gives a great reason for being concerned."

Putin, in his view, is looking to cut a “global deal” with Trump in order to fundamentally change the international order. "I’m here to provide additional ammo to those who support democracy around the world."

But he warned in a new report he shared with U.S. officials that if the West abandons Ukraine, Putin might go further.

"The outcome of the showdown between the Kremlin and Ukraine will also directly affect the future of Russia and Europe," states "The Kremlin's Hybrid Aggression," about Moscow's efforts to destabilize Ukraine. "If Putin's unrelenting pressure proves fruitful, and Kiev returns into the domain of the Kremlin influence, then there is no doubt that the Russian president will attempt applying the same methods towards other countries pf the former USSR. Putin's obvious targets are Moldova, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. However, there are also risks for the Baltic States, in spite of their NATO membership."

And while he said he does not support everything the Ukrainian government does, “there is only one alternative [to the current leadership in Kiev], which is Putin."

Inside Russia itself, Putin is far more adept at deflecting and undermining domestic criticism than his predecessors, in Yashin's view. "Putin is way smarter than the old Soviet leaders."

In particular, he said that while the Soviet Union tried to prevent any critics from escaping to the West, Putin is more than happy to let his political opponents leave the country, never to return.

But when asked what the Trump administration should do to weaken Putin, the young activist cautioned against any aggressive efforts to support opposition groups inside Russia.

“Putin is a problem of the Russian people,” he said. “We are not sitting here waiting for the U.S. to change the regime, no. We should do it ourselves. Don't make him stronger than he already is."