“We Try To Show Russian Society Putin Is Liar”

“Putin says every day and every month that there are no Russian troops in Ukraine and we tried to show to Russian society that it’s not true,” said Ilya Yashin, a Russian opposition activist and politician.

Yashin and his colleagues have published Boris Nemtsov’s report, “Putin. War.” It looks into Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict and they plan to distribute it within Russia in an attempt to inform the population.

Yashin attending the announcement of Nemtsov’s Report “Putin. War” on May 12th. Photo: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

According to him, through this report they are trying to change Putin’s politics by changing people’s opinions. Yashin told Hromadske that they want to show people that Putin’s politics in Ukraine is damaging to Russia and its national interests. According to his rough estimates, war with Ukraine has cost the Russian budget alone 53 billion dollars. Additionally, Western sanctions are very damaging, and Putin’s counter sanctions are also hurting Russia in both the short and long term.

President Putin has increasingly isolated Russia from the West; being kicked out of the G8 in March 2014 — with many predicting even harsher sanctions should the conflict in Ukraine’s East escalate in the summer. As Russian opposition hopes, the economic elite in Russia could start to distance themselves from Putin, whose authoritarian model can no longer guarantee economic success in the face of Western sanctions.

On the murder of his friend and Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, Yashin told Hromadske that the Russian opposition believe that the key witness in the case should be Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of the Chechen Republic.

Russian president Vladimir Putin and his close ally Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of Chechnya. Photo: Bloomberg

Nemtsov was gunned down close to the Kremlin on the 27th of February — a day before he was due to lead a street demonstration protesting economic conditions in Russia and the war in Ukraine. The murder also occurred shortly after Nemtsov publicly announced that he would be publishing a report confirming Russian military involvement in Ukraine.

While Yashin is convinced that the murderer is in the custody of Russian police he believes that the order came from Ramzan Kadyrov. He hopes to bring all those involved in this murder to justice, including Kadyrov.

However, Yashin do not believe that any action will be taken against Kadyrov because of his power base within Russia. According to Yashin, Kadyrov is the only person in Russia who can talk with Putin on an equal level.

On the issue of how to fix relations between Russia and Ukraine, Yashin advises regular Ukrainians to show Russians that they are not Russophobic, that criticism of Putin does not equate to hate of all Russians.

The Kremlin continues to deny any Russian involvement in the conflict in Ukraine.