‘We’re prepared to defend our rights’ Anti-Putin activist Pavel Kharitonenko on his plans to run for local office on a pro-democracy platform
Pavel Kharitonenko has long been an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime. Since 2019, the activist has organized numerous demonstrations and pickets in his hometown of Irkutsk, protesting official corruption, Putin’s presidential term “reset,” and the imprisonment of opposition politicians in Russia. Unlike many opposition figures, Kharitonenko chose to remain in Russia following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In mid-June of this year, the 38-year-old announced his candidacy for the Irkutsk City Duma elections slated for September. The independent Siberia-based outlet People of Baikal spoke to Kharitonenko about his political career so far and his ambitions to empower democratically inclined Russians in Irkutsk and beyond. Meduza shares an English-language summary of the interview.
In mid-June, Irkutsk opposition activist and politician Pavel Kharitonenko announced that he plans to run for a seat in the Irkutsk City Duma in Russia’s municipal elections scheduled for September 8th. “It was a tough decision,” he admits. “We all understand perfectly well that the institution of elections [in Russia] is pretty much destroyed.”
But the Siberian activist doesn’t see Russia’s bleak political reality as a reason to surrender. “We need to use all possible legal means to put pressure on those in power,” he tells People of Baikal. “I’m running in these elections to demonstrate that there are still democratically inclined people in Russia; we don’t support the current regime, and we’re prepared to defend our rights and interests.”
While he notes that no form of governance is perfect, Kharitonenko believes that freedom of speech and diversity of opinion are key to a society’s prosperity. “Democracy and liberalism are the ideologies I feel closest to,” the activist says. “I’m in favor of having a wide range of political parties in parliament; they should have to compromise and solve problems in the interests of the country and its citizens.”
Should he get the chance to represent the citizens of Irkutsk, Kharitonenko says, he can promise them a human-centric approach to politics. “If I win, I’ll do everything I can to bring back a very simple idea: power for people’s sake, not power for power’s sake,” he explains. Above all else, he says, he aims to give a voice to those who, like him, want reform, peace, and a democratic future for Russia.
“My core supporters are democratically inclined, young, active people who want to see change in their country,” Kharitonenko says. “But I’ll try and mobilize everyone; we all face the same problems at a local level, regardless of ideology and political preference.”
Concrete steps
If elected in September, Kharitonenko vows to devote his efforts toward redirecting spending to improve local infrastructure and expand public services in the Irkutsk region. He objects to how the region’s previous Duma deputies have squandered local funds on ostentatious events and “patriotic” landscaping projects while failing to address the problems of under-resourced nurseries, overwhelmed medical clinics, and crumbling roads. “I’ll fight for the Irkutsk budget to be used to improve the lives of local people,” Kharitonenko says, arguing that true patriotism entails loving one’s country and its residents.
This electoral campaign won’t be Kharitonenko’s first rodeo. In September 2021, he ran on the Yabloko party ticket in Russia’s State Duma elections. (It’s unclear whether he’ll represent the same party this time or run as a self-nominated candidate.) Despite attempts by the authorities to sabotage his advertising efforts, Kharitonenko describes the 2021 campaign as “a very important experience,” pointing to his meeting with Yabloko party leader, Nikolay Rybakov, as a highlight.
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Ultimately, Kharitonenko failed to win a State Duma seat in 2021, a result he put down to a lack of funds but also to the widespread fear of dissent in Russia. “A lot of people are scared to help the opposition, even if they share our views,” he tells People of Baikal. “I have big respect for those who decide to risk it. Unfortunately, elections in our country depend not on politicians and ideologies but on capital and administrative resources,” he says.
The campaign trail isn’t the only place where Kharitonenko has encountered difficulties; his career as an activist has also been littered with setbacks. In early 2019, he was arrested and fined multiple times for hanging political banners around Irkutsk. The signs bore slogans like “Putin means war, corruption, and poverty” and “Down with the power of thieves.” “I was detained by the [National Guard spetsnaz unit] SOBR,” Kharitonenko recounts. “It was like I was some dangerous criminal!”
In early 2021, Kharitonenko was arrested again. He spent 20 days in a special detention facility, which, though not a full-blown prison, was “still a pretty unpleasant place,” he says. He was detained on charges of allegedly organizing an illegal demonstration in support of the late Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, whose arrest upon returning to Russia from Germany in January 2021 sparked widespread national protests. “Those protests were actually organized by Navalny’s team,” Kharitonenko tells People of Baikal, “but the security forces […] paid visits to all the local activists. I didn’t plead guilty at the trial, but the authorities still deemed me the organizer of the Irkutsk demonstration.”
Last November, Kharitonenko was forced to quit his job as a bartender after likening Putin’s regime to “a dictatorship” during an interview with Swiss broadcaster SRF. “I left to protect my employer,” the activist explains. “It was a mutual decision. This situation, where an employer has to let go an employee because he’s worried about pressure from the authorities, says a lot about the degradation of our country.”
While speaking out in today’s Russia comes with inevitable fear, Kharitonenko has found a way to use this fear to his advantage. “Unfortunately, it’s hard to talk about politics these days, even just at home, and not feel scared. But fear is a natural feeling,” he says. “We’ve got to make sure the fear keeps us from acting rashly but doesn’t numb us.”
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