During the 4th Anti-War Conference of the Free Russia Forum in Riga, the inclusion of new figures in the “Putin List” is being discussed. The preliminary list of suggestions includes war criminals (representatives of the Russian army command), high-level Russian officials, representatives of the repressive system pursuing anti-war activists and oppositionists. As well as many leaders of Russian public opinion: well-known journalists, TV presenters, actors, and rock musicians who supported Putin’s aggression in Ukraine.
Sergei Dronov and Nikolai Yevmenov, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force and Navy, Vladimir Kasatonov, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, and Oleg Salyukov, Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, may fall into the category of military criminals.
Among the officials on Putin’s list, the head of the RF Government Office Dmitry Grigorenko, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, Minister of Economic Development Maksim Reshetnikov and head of the Ministry of Transport Vitaly Savelyev may be added to the list.
The need to put high-ranking officials on the “Putin’s List” is explained by the fact that, amid the war against Ukraine, these individuals could not find the strength to condemn the aggression and leave the government and remained working in the system and support the ruling regime with their activities.
The investigative team in the “Memorial” case, which recently conducted searches of the organization and some of its employees, the investigator who opened a criminal case on the justification of terrorism against civil activist Mikhail Krieger, the judges and prosecutor who are holding former municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov captive, are all at risk of becoming perpetrators, Judge Basyrov, who upheld the conviction of Alexei Navalny, sentenced to nine years in a trumped-up case; Judge Darya Pugacheva, who sentenced Dmitry Ivanov to eight and a half years in prison for his posts on the Protein MSU telegram channel; and other members of Putin’s repressive regime.
Forum participants also nominated a number of opinion leaders – well-known people who have their own audiences and influence them – to be added to Putin’s list. These included TV presenter Vladimir Pozner, former head of the “Ekho Moskvy” radio station Alexei Venediktov, famous show businesswoman Ksenia Sobchak, musicians Sergei Galanin and Vladimir Shakhrin, actors Stanislav Sadalsky, Yevgeny Mironov, and Yevgeny Knyazev.
Forum participants will decide whether or not to include specific candidates in the “Putin’s List” at the 4th Anti-War Conference. As a reminder, the Forum has a two-step procedure for adding new candidates to the “Putin’s list”: first, the Working Group drafts and approves the list of candidates and then it is submitted to a general vote of the Forum participants. In this way a certain legitimacy of the “Putin’s List” is achieved, coming from numerous FRF participants.
Recall that the “Putin’s List” is a project of the Free Russia Forum aimed at finding, consolidating and unifying data on individuals responsible for the creation and operation of the system of usurpation of power and suppression of civil liberties in Russia, as well as war criminals and those responsible for fomenting war.
