You're reading: Khodorkovsky calls on Russians to protest Kremlin war against Ukraine

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian billionaire who spent a decade in prison for opposing Russian President Vladimir Putin, is calling on Russian citizens to take to the streets of their cities in protest against the Kremlin’s six-month-old war against Ukraine.

The statement appeared on Khodorkovsky’s
personal website on Aug. 28, the same day that NATO released a couple of
satellite images that show Russian combat forces engaged in military operations
inside Ukraine.

“We’re fighting with Ukraine – in real. We’re
sending military forces and vehicles there. Ukrainians fight good, but started
backing down. The forces are not equal,” reads the post.

During the six months of Russia’s war
against Ukraine, starting with the Crimean invasion, the natin has lost 722
servicemen and more than 2,000 civilians, according to official count.

Kyiv Post+ provides special coverage of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the aftermath of the EuroMaidan Revolution.

Khodorkovsky also pointed that the Russian
government lies about the situation. In the meantime, Russian diplomats keep
denying Russian involvement in events that unfold in Ukrainian eastern oblasts,
despite the international evidence.

Russian representative to the OSCE Andrey Kelin
said on Aug. 28 that “no Russian involvement has been spotted, there are no
soldiers or equipment present.”

“We do not deliver it there. The
allegations that there are columns with armored vehicles, that was voiced last
week does not make any sense,” Kelin was quoted as saying.

Khodorkovsky brushed off such
statements.

“Our government was lying about
Afghanistan in the ‘80s and about Chechnya in the ‘90s. While today they lie
about Ukraine as we bury our former colleagues, friends and relatives, who are
now fighting on both sides and killing each other, not because they want to,
but because of an aging power that always needs blood,” Khodorkovsky wrote.

Once Russia’s richest man, Khodorkovsky
says that he is certain that Russians “can stop what is happening.” The
solution as he sees it comes with the protest. “I don’t want to keep silence
anymore,” he wrote.

Later that day, Solidarity movement activist Dmitriy
Monakhov went to Moscow’s central Manezh Square and called for a
criminal investigation against Putin.

“I am Russian. Not cattle. Not a killer.
And I am not an occupier. I am ashamed that Putin is my president. At 9 p.m., I
will go to Manezh against the war,” Monakhov tweeted. His tweet was shared
nearly 3,000 times.

The police officers detained the
activist even though single-person rallies are not banned in Russia. 

Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova
can be reached at [email protected]