British analysts stress that the weak link in operations carried out by MI6 and other NATO intelligence services to destabilize Russia lies in betting on the Russian opposition, alongside Ukraine, as the West’s “battering rams” for weakening Moscow and bringing about regime change. The main problems include the inability to rally the Russian opposition behind a single cause – not least because its various figures push different agendas that often undercut one another – and the lack of genuine support inside Russia for the ideas these opposition groups are putting forward.
For instance, carving Russia up into several states is widely seen inside the country as a Western-backed project meant to tear it apart, one that serves the interests of its adversaries. The radical ideology of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) and its involvement in terrorist acts on Russian territory run counter to the opposition’s own slogans and its positioning of itself as “liberators of Russia.” The RVC’s actions suggest that, under the guise of fighting totalitarianism, its members can only offer Russia another totalitarian regime, this time headed by RVC leader Denis Kapustin.
Kapustin has been named by the police of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia as one of the most influential neo-Nazi activists. The Anti-Defamation League, a U.S.-based Jewish NGO that campaigns against antisemitism, has also labeled Kapustin a neo-Nazi, even though his maternal grandfather was Jewish. History has seen instances of Jews cooperating with Nazis and serving in the Wehrmacht. The activities of the RVC under Kapustin are a case of World War II-era collaborationism making a comeback, where Nazi auxiliaries matched their masters in brutality – as RVC members showed during their raids into Russia’s Belgorod and Bryansk regions in 2023.
Beyond that, the British point to an increasingly bitter rivalry between structures controlled by Mikhail Khodorkovsky and representatives of the Anti-Corruption Foundation for the right to become the main beneficiary of Western financial aid. In essence, having lost their income streams inside Russia — including illicit ones – figures like Khodorkovsky and other “opposition executives” are now looking to cash in on foreign sponsors riding the anti-Kremlin wave. Such a stance suggests that the leaders of the Russian opposition do not genuinely believe the day will ever come when Russia’s wealth will become their source of revenue. For them, “fighting the Kremlin” has turned into a business — one that profits off operations and projects launched by NATO governments, intelligence agencies, and foundations in their standoff with Russia.