MOSCOW – Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Yukos ex-chief and the founder of Open Russia, says his movement should support all Russian presidential candidates who support its views, including the opposition activist Alexei Navalny and journalist Ksenia Sobchak.
“What do I think is right for the movement? It would be right for the movement to support all those who promote our values,” Khodorkovsky said by video link during an Open Russian conference in Moscow on Saturday.
There are two politicians on the pre-election scene who share Open Russia’s values, Navalny and Sobchak, whose campaigns are also relying on the movement’s staff among others, he said.
The forthcoming election will be a “pseudo-election,” even if Navalny and Sobchak are allowed to run, because the transfer of power to them is not possible, Khodorskovsky said. “This is exactly why there are no spoilers here: because there is no election. There are people ready to articulate the political interests of their groups, and there are jesters who create noise, distracting the public from real problems and their solutions,” Khodorkovsky said.
He said that he welcomes both Sobchak and Navalny as allies of Open Russia, who promote the values of parliamentarianism, federalism and the rule of law.
“I am paying tribute to Grigory Yavlinsky who has been in these positions for several decades now,” Khodorkovsky said.
Open Russia should primarily call not for changing president as an individual but for systemic change, switching to the parliamentary republic, government accountability to parliament, and allowing regional political centers to set the pace of social-political development on their own, Khodorkovsky said.
Yavlinsky, Yabloko party’s federal political committee chairman, and the television host Sobchak earlier announced an intention to run for president in 2018.
Navalny also declared his presidential ambitions, but the Russian laws prevent him from registering as a candidate because of a conviction.
