Where and how should regional representations of the Free Russia Forum be established? What should these representations do and should they be organized as honorary consulates? How do Russian emigrants and political emigrants help Ukrainian refugees? How has this war changed us all, and continues to change us every day? From undesirable to illegal: what about refugees from Russia who left the country to avoid going to war, but found themselves trapped in Europe: without the right to a residence permit, a digital signature, the opportunity to buy or rent real estate, to get a job? Is the idea of “good Russians’ passports” so bad, and why have the media distorted it? Can a humanitarian hub be created on the basis of the Free Russia Forum that would provide answers to the questions that worry everyone who is abroad and does not understand how to proceed? And what should we do first: create a political party or solve humanitarian problems?
More than 50 activists from humanitarian and volunteer organizations came to Riga to find answers to these and other important questions. Especially to participate in a working group to create regional branches of the FRF. Refugees, emigrants, and political emigrants living in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Serbia, and other European countries discussed how to unite to do more than they were already doing separately.
During the discussion, moderated by Maksim Reznik, former deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly and current political emigrant, the participants expressed a variety of thoughts and ideas. The majority of those present were ready to work under the umbrella of the Free Russia Forum in order to create a community that would embrace different European countries. To help refugees from Ukraine and Russia, to break down the barrier between refugees from the war and emigrants from the past, and to inform Europeans about what the Russian opposition is doing and how it sees the future of Russia.
“Those gathered here are those who left in order to return,” Maxim Reznik summarized, “and even a like on the Internet under an anti-war post is already a small step toward having a country where we want to return”…
