TIMESASIANews.com | European Union (EU) official Sergey Lagodinsky, is concerned and warns that politicians worse than Russian President Vladimir Putin could take over the country if there is no viable democratic alternative in the country.
The European Parliament member for Germany’s Green party who left Russia in 1993 urged the world to take seriously the possibility of a worse anti-democratic politician than Putin.
“It will be important and challenging to present viable democratic alternatives when circumstances change,” Lagodinsky told Foreign Policy, quoted by Newsweek, Tuesday (2022/11/29).
“You need strong leaders and politicians who offer themselves as alternatives,” he added.
According to Lagodinsky, while there are a number of outspoken Putin dissidents, few have been able to amass a following like opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
However, Navalny, who has organized several anti-government demonstrations in Russia and is one of Putin’s biggest rivals, is currently serving a 13-year sentence on charges of fraud and contempt of court.
Most of his allies have fled the country or are under house arrest.
Lagodinsky, who has known Navalny for more than a decade, said the political activist returned to Russia because his political life was so ingrained in the country, but he did not expect the Kremlin to eradicate his political organisation, the Future Russia party.
Like Navalny, Lagodinsky has also been critical of Putin, especially after Russia’s incursion into Ukraine.
A month after the war started, the German member of Parliament accused EU politicians of repeatedly giving Putin a pass in an opinion piece, and urged the bloc to hold itself accountable for being politically responsible for the conflict in Ukraine.
“We need to remember lessons from the past for our own future: Even if you have to coexist with dictators, you don’t need to finance, justify, or imitate them. What we really need is de-Putinization. We have to eliminate Putin himself,” wrote Lagodinsky.
He suggested that Kremlin opponents set up offices abroad so they could talk to Western leaders about the matter at home.
On the other hand, launching from CNBC, Lyubov Sobol, an ally of Navalny who fled Russia last year, said the opposition politicians’ two goals were “to reduce Putin’s legitimacy and increase confidence in our democracy movement, and there will be a lot of political turmoil after Putin, whoever can take part,” said Sobol.
“We are not waiting for the fall of the regime. We are actively working for it and want to achieve it as soon as possible,” he concluded. (**)
