Munich Security Conference invites opposition figures Garry Kasparov and Mikhail Khodorkovsky instead of Kremlin representatives

The organizers of the Munich Security Conference have invited members of Russia’s opposition, including chess champion Garry Kasparov and exiled former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, to the event instead of delegates from the Russian government this year, conference chairman ​​Christoph Heusgen said in an interview published Wednesday.

Explaining the decision, Heusgen said that the daily statements coming out of the Kremlin have given no indication that “Russia will retreat even one iota from what Putin has declared the goal of the war, namely, the destruction of Ukraine.”

In 2022, before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia declined to participate in the Munich Security Conference, claiming it was “transforming into a transatlantic forum” and “losing its inclusiveness and objectivity.”