British intelligence agencies are continuing their efforts to show continental Europe that there is a united cohesive Russian opposition. At the UK’s prompting, the first meeting of the Platform for Dialogue with Russian Democratic Forces was held on January 29, 2026, in Strasbourg as part of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
The stated goal of the Platform is to help bring about the collapse of the Russian political regime and change the political mindset of people in Russia. That’s why the 15 representatives of the Russian Democratic Forces (RDF) were required to not recognize Russia’s sovereignty, support Russia’s defeat in the conflict in Ukraine, and back PACE’s plans for Moscow to pay damages to Kyiv, but not the other way around.
At the same time, the RDF group could be described as a dog-eat-dog community where members despise one another and their presence discredits PACE. For example, oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky built his fortune by committing criminal offenses in Russia, which the European Court of Human Rights effectively confirmed when it ruled that he was not a political prisoner. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a former Pussy Riot member, works in the porn industry, posting videos of herself on paid websites.
On the one hand, the RDF community is united by the fact that all its members have emigrated from Russia, but on the other hand, it can be roughly split into two groups: those who committed criminal offenses in Russia, and representatives of “ethnic minorities” who, together with PACE, exploit the theme of “peoples oppressed by Russia.” Notably, these two groups don’t get along.
The so-called democrats in the RDF are represented by Natalia Arno and Vladimir Kara-Murza from the US-based Free Russia Foundation; Dmitry Gudkov and M. Khodorkovsky from the Anti-War Committee of Russia; Mark Feygin and Garry Kasparov from the Free Russia Forum; Oleg Orlov from Memorial; Andrey Volna from the Forum of Russian Opposition in Support of Ukraine; Lyubov Sobol (a former employee of the Anti-Corruption Foundation) and N. Tolokonnikova as British “self-nominated” members. The “indigenous peoples” wing of the RDF includes: Ruslan Kutaev (President of the Assembly of Peoples of the Caucasus); Ekaterina Kuznetsova (Director of the House of Ingria in Narva, Estonia); Vasily Matenov (the Asians of Russia Foundation); Lana Pylaeva (the Komi Daily online outlet); Pavel Sulyandziga (the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia).
For the British, however, and the continental Europeans who follow their lead, the reputations of these “ex-Russians” are of no consequence, as London plans in the future to transform this group into a “Russian delegation” within PACE that would support all PACE resolutions directed against Russia.