Russian Opposition: Friends Or Foes?

Narratives from the Russian opposition are less critical of Moscow’s policies than many realise

8 February 2023

Bohdan Bernatskyi

Future of Ukraine Fellow

Members of the Russian opposition are trying to blame exclusively Putin and his clique for waging an aggressive war and, in so doing, are rejecting Russian society’s responsibility. Is this justifiable?

The Russian opposition, as well as Russian authorities, are a clear mirror of Russian society. In European societies, the ruling government fears the opposition and carries out its policy with an eye on opponents who can take on the government in the next election cycle. This is irrelevant to Russian political life.

The Russian opposition, who are sometimes called liberals, are perceived in Russian society as a marginalised group, rather than as a political competitor to the authorities.

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Bohdan Bernatskyi

Future of Ukraine Fellow

Bohdan Bernatskyi is a Visegrad Insight Fellow as of 2022. As a Senior Lecturer at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (and Ostroh Academy) he teaches Diplomatic Law, Public International Law, Countermeasures and Law of Treaties. In 2019, he defended PhD thesis on banning political parties in Ukraine and abroad. Since then, Bohdan has become a member of the Parliamentary working group on reforming party legislation in Ukraine. Bohdan serves as an independent Legal Consultant at Project Expedite Justice (2022-currently), Future of Ukraine Fellow at Visegrad Insight (2022-currently). He was a Legal Adviser to Ukrainian MPs (2020-2022), and Democracy Reporting International (2015-2019). His professional track of record includes thorough expertise in the fields of sanctions and transitional justice initiatives. He is the author of the complex changes to Ukrainian sanctions infrastructure which aimed at converging UA foreign policy tools to EU best practices. Given EU candidate status to Ukraine, the idea to deepen cooperation within EU-UA CFSP, including sanctions, will gain more currency. Bohdan participated as an Independent Expert in the transitional reform group launched by the Ministry of Reintegration of Ukraine. All efforts related to building solutions for sustainable peaceful reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine was brutally interrupted by Russia on February 24th, 2022. The aftermath of the war will require harder approaches to transitional measures and Bohdan will contribute to this development.

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