Garry Kasparov - one of the organizers of the "Free Russia Forum". Photo(c): Andrei Kalikh. All rights reserved.In early December, Vilnius once again hosted the fourth Free Russia Forum. This, the Russian opposition’s main annual get-together, is normally described by the pro-Kremlin media as a fugitive émigré coven, but is nothing of the sort. A good half of the participants actually reside in Russia, but there is a compelling reason for holding the Forum elsewhere – it just wouldn’t be allowed to happen at home.
Like-minded people criticise the Forum for trying to bring together oppositionists of all hues (it is attended by Democrats, left-wingers and Russian ultra nationalists). This means that it rarely arrives at any concrete conclusions: people come, argue and go home again, giving the media an excuse for further criticism in its wake.
I shall therefore refrain from analysing panel sessions with titles such as “The Putin Regime in the International Arena”, “Russia caught on the FSB’s Hook” and “The Centenary of the October Disaster”. Their speakers – academics, politicians and journalists – did an excellent job of describing the place and role of today’s Russia in the international political sphere. I would rather concentrate on the Forum’s “product” – the concrete recommendations for further opposition activity that came out of it. Three other discussions were devoted to these questions: fighting the Kremlin’s propaganda machine; what to do about the forthcoming elections and the possibility of further sanctions.
