Exiled opposition, unite? Yulia Navalnaya, Vladimir Kara-Murza, and Ilya Yashin join forces to hold anti-war demonstration in Berlin

Infighting has long plagued the Russian opposition. But this weekend, three of its most prominent figureheads are hoping for a show of unity in Berlin. Exiled Kremlin critics Yulia Navalnaya, Ilya Yashin, and Vladimir Kara-Murza have joined forces to hold an anti-war march centered around three main demands: the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the prosecution of Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, and the release of all political prisoners. The planned demonstration has already sparked debate among Russians living abroad, including controversies surrounding the Russian flag and questions about the opposition’s broader strategic plan for bringing down the Putin regime. Here’s what you need to know ahead of the march on Sunday.

Three of Russia’s most prominent exiled opposition figures will stage a march in Berlin this Sunday, demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the prosecution of Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, and the release of all political prisoners. 

The trio behind the demonstration includes Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late opposition politician Alexey Navalny, and former political prisoners Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin, who were freed in August as part of a historic prisoner swap between Russia and Western countries. 

Both prominent Kremlin critics, Kara-Murza and Yashin were imprisoned in 2022 for condemning Russian atrocities in Ukraine. Yashin was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison, while Kara-Murza received a 25-year prison term after Russian authorities added additional charges of treason and cooperating with an “undesirable” organization.

Yulia Navalnaya formally took up the opposition mantle in February 2024, after her husband’s sudden death in an Arctic prison. Navalny was widely seen as the figurehead of the Russian opposition, and his death sparked the largest protests inside the country since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

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The organizers announced the demonstration on October 30, Russia’s Remembrance Day for Victims of Political Repressions, along with a set of demands: 

Anti-war demonstrations are also set to take place in dozens of other cities around the world on November 17. “It’s not possible to hold legal protest rallies on the territory of our country today — people there are brutally beaten and imprisoned for long periods of time,” Yashin wrote on X. “But we can still show that a peaceful, free, and civilized Russia exists. We exist, we are not silent, and we are acting together.” 

Asked about the march planned in Berlin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the organizers as “monstrously out-of-touch” with Russia. “They have no connection to their country, and the country has no connection to them. Therefore, any of their opinions won’t be of any interest here,” he told journalists. 

‘This rally isn’t about flags’

The announcement video for the anti-war march in Berlin immediately sparked a heated online debate because it included a photo of demonstrators carrying both Russian and Ukrainian flags at a 2014 protest in Moscow opposing Russia’s annexation of Crimea. 

Following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, anti-war protesters generally eschewed the Russian tricolor, with some opting to carry a white-blue-white banner instead. (An alternative version of the Russian flag “without the red, bloody stripe.”) Nevertheless, some people interpreted the photo as an endorsement of the Russian tricolor as a protest symbol. 

Writing on Facebook, political scientist Alexander Morozov warned the organizers against attempting to reclaim the Russian flag. 

“The tricolor is exactly the same as the Kremlin, Catherine II, or Pushkin. Putin stole them from us [and] he has no special right to what was stolen,” economist Konstantin Sonin replied in the comments. “I understand what ‘optics’ are and how that looks. But if the argument is, ‘Stop the war, return Russia to normality,’ then protesting under another flag is like recognizing the Putinist scum’s right to Russia.” 

So far, the Berlin march’s organizers have attempted to dismiss the flag debate. In a post on X calling for unity, Yashin said the backlash came as a surprise. “It seems to me that the discussion about the flags clearly overshadows the essence of the rally we want to hold in Berlin,” he said. “This rally isn’t about flags, but about solidarity with political prisoners, rejection of an aggressive war, and resistance to Putin’s policies.” 

In turn, Vladimir Kara-Murza told journalist Alexander Plyushchev that while there’s no “agreed position” among the organizers, participants should be able to carry “the flags they think are right.”

Russian gallerist Marat Gelman, who sits on the organizing committee for the Berlin march, later reiterated on X that there’s “no flag ban.” 

Organizers of the November 17 anti-war demonstration in Amsterdam have told participants, “Please do not bring the Russian white-blue-red flag.” (They have also warned that the white-blue-white banner could be mistaken for the Israeli flag.)

‘No plan’

Although the Berlin march marks a rare show of unity among Russian opposition figures, some have questioned what it’s meant to achieve. Writing on X, feminist activist Daria Serenko asked if it was part of a broader strategy. “It’s important for us to understand this because everyone is tired of rallies abroad by themselves. We want to understand why we’re doing this,” she said. 

Others believe the organizers have a secondary motive — namely, shoring up their own public profiles as leaders of opposition-minded Russians abroad. Yashin himself said as much in a recent interview, explaining that a well-attended demonstration would help legitimize their advocacy work in the eyes of Western leaders. 

On Friday, veteran human rights defender Lev Ponomarev raised concerns about the march’s organizers “deliberately” excluding representatives of anti-war organizations from their plans and “calling for unification specifically around the FBK” (the Navalny-founded Anti-Corruption Foundation). He then published a joint statement from representatives of democratic organizations, expressing support for the march in Berlin and calling for all anti-war forces to hold a joint conference. 

“We hope this will be a step towards the consolidation of democratic forces and a broad anti-war coalition. The march is important, but so is joint work towards a strategy for democratic change in Russia [and] support for those still inside the country,” the statement said.

In an earlier interview with TV Rain, Navalnaya admitted that the exiled anti-Kremlin opposition has “no plan” for how to bring down the Putin regime. “It’s about doing what you can, what’s useful, every day. It’s about speaking out loudly against Putin and against the war if you have the opportunity,” Navalnaya said. 

“A plan will happen [and] we need to prepare people for this plan,” she added. “This could take a long time. I’m not saying this will happen tomorrow, but we will be victorious. A killer and a war criminal can’t run the country.”