The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is an intergovernmental organisation that brings together the parliamentary delegations of the Council of Europe member states.
The Council of Europe currently has 46 member states, including some that are not members of the European Union.

From 1996 to 2022, Russia was a member of the PACE; its participation was suspended following the aggression against Ukraine.
The best-known institution created by the Council of Europe is the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which has protected the rights of Russian citizens for many years (citizens of the Russian Federation have filed more appeals to the ECHR than any other European people).
The competences of the ECtHR mainly concern the coordination between European countries on the protection of human rights.

Beginning in 2022, Russian opposition forces – including the Russian Anti-War Committee, the Free Russia Foundation and the Anti-Corruption Foundation ( Navalny‘s team) – initiated a dialogue with the PACE aimed at creating a communication body between the Russian opposition and Europe.

The active phase of the work began in 2023, when the project gained the support of the president of the Assembly.
One of the main arguments in favour of creating the platform is the refusal of many member states to accept a possible return of the official Russian delegation representing the Putin regime.

On 1 October 2025, the deputies of the PACE passed a resolution to establish a platform for dialogue with Russian democratic forces.
This decision represents the first official document to recognise the existence of Russian citizens who are opposed to war and dictatorship, and who aspire to a return of the Russian state to a peaceful, democratic and neighbourly development.
The document is quite comprehensive both in terms of criteria and conditions for membership.

The Kremlin reacted very seriously to this initiative. A few days after the resolution was adopted, criminal proceedings were opened against 23 members of the Anti-War Committee of Russia – one of the organisations involved in the dialogue with the PACE – on charges of ‘attempt to usurp power’ and ‘terrorism’.
These are charges which, according to Russian law, carry sentences of more than 20 years in prison.

In other words, the Kremlin sees the creation of an institution for dialogue with the Russian opposition as a kind of recognition of a legitimate alternative to the existing power.
Even though this platform does not have the same prerogatives as an official state delegation – it has neither the right to vote nor other powers proper to delegations -, the reaction of the Russian authorities shows how much they actually fear the opposition, despite official statements that it ‘counts for nothing’.

The platform will consist of 12 members, and its president will be the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), who will be directly responsible for coordination with the Russian democratic forces.
According to the resolution, the platform will be able to participate in the work of the thematic groups of the PACE, particularly those related to Russia.

Members of the platform will be able to inform PACE delegations about the ongoing processes in the country and defend the rights of our compatriots who opposed the war (both those who are still in Russia and those who have emigrated).
In this way, Russians opposed to the war will have a recognised voice in Europe, and parliamentarians from European nations will be able to receive first-hand information useful for their decisions.

In essence, it is an advisory and expert body. The PACE hopes that the first composition of the platform will include public figures who have openly condemned the war and dictatorship.

Anyone can apply – either in a personal capacity or as part of a list proposed by an organisation.

Nominations can be sent in free form by email. The full list of candidates will be sent to the PACE by 5 January. It will then be reviewed by the staff of the Assembly President and the final list will be approved by the PACE Bureau , i.e. the group leaders of all the political forces represented.

The PACE retains control over the selection because of the high risks involved in forming the Russian platform in wartime: MEPs are only willing to talk to Russians whose position against the war is clear.

According to journalists present at the meetings, the PACE set an explicit condition: candidates must be public figures with a solid reputation proven over many years, to avoid the risk of someone changing their position and declaring, for example, their support for Putin.
In the case of nominations by organisations, they must be the leading representatives of these structures.

Overall, the PACE resolution provides a comprehensive description, and we strongly recommend reading it:

👉Text of the resolution (EN)

It is significant, for example, that Russia’s crimes are not limited to Ukraine: Moldova and Georgia are also mentioned.
Personally, as a representative – so to speak – of the centrist opposition, I consider the resolution to be very balanced, including measures such as a ban on the current Russian tricolour flag, support for the creation of an international tribunal and reparations for war damage.
I hope this helps to exclude those who confuse peace with trying to please the dictator.

What raised more political controversy, however, was the requirement to compulsorily sign the Berlin Declaration.
This document, in fact, was initially drafted and promoted by the Russian Anti-War Committee (which many associate with Mikhail Khodorkovsky) and Garry Kasparov.

As Vladimir Kara-Murza stated, it is in his view an unnecessary politicisation of a process that should not be.
The Berlin Declaration is a manifesto of Russian opposition to the war, signed by over 30,000 people.
The PACE, and in particular the Ukrainian delegation, which did not block the creation of the platform, wanted additional guarantees that Russian representatives would not use their presence in a European institution to pursue political agendas contrary to Ukrainian sovereignty. The Berlin Declaration clearly states support for Ukraine as a victim of criminal aggression.

From a practical point of view, I understand this requirement: the declaration simply contains the points already listed in the PACE resolution, but allows for an official signature of the candidate under those principles.
However, Navalny’s team, for example, which has strongly divergent positions from Khodorkovsky’s, has not signed the declaration and refuses to do so. Recently, it even publicly announced that it will not present any candidates, considering the selection procedure non-transparent.

Even within the milieu of Russian anti-war activists, there has been much criticism of the platform formation procedure, in particular the absence of elections and the lack of transparency.
But we have to be honest: under the current conditions it is almost impossible to organise elections, both for security reasons and because there is simply no proper platform to do so.

Not so long ago, during one of the meetings between potential Russian delegates at the PACE, a conflict occurred, during which Garry Kasparov, according to witnesses, accused Vladimir Kara-Murza of not having signed the Berlin Declaration yet, of being in prison just for publicity and of doing nothing concrete.
Kara-Murza was deeply offended and publicly announced his exit from the Anti-Russian War Committee, of which he had been a member since its foundation and in which Kasparov is also a member.

Later, during a formal meeting, Vladimir Milov, representing the Free Russia Foundation, asked the PACE chairman to postpone the creation of the platform until the Russian opposition forces find an internal agreement.

However, the term of office of the PACE chairman is coming to an end, and the creation of the platform is one of the dossiers he would like to complete.
Consequently, the president , surprised by the request, refused, saying that every parliament implies dialogue even with people we do not like, and that the ability to find compromises is needed. (Personally, I completely agree: the ability to negotiate and find compromises is what many Russian political forces dramatically lack).

So, the procedure remained the same: applications had to be submitted by 5 January, and voting will take place at the end of January.

Here are some of the candidates who have officially announced their candidature for the Russian opposition platform at the PACE:

• 🟣 LGBT activist Evelina Chaika, on behalf of the Platform of Anti-War Initiatives;
  
• 🟣 Sergey Aleksashenko, Marat Gelman, Dmitry Gudkov, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Elena Lukyanova, Vadim Prokhorov, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Anastasia Shevchenko, Ekaterina Shulman – candidates put forward by the Russian Anti-War Committee (from which Kara-Murza later exited);
  
• 🟣 Lyubov Sobol;
  
• 🟣 Evgenia Chirikova, for the Free Russia Forum;
  
• 🟣 Ilya Ponomarev;
  
• 🟣 Feminists Lelya Nordic, Daria Serenko, Alexandra Starost, Viktoria Privalova from the Anti-War Feminist Movement;
  
• 🟣 The Russian Volunteer Corps;
  
• 🟣 The ‘Freedom for Russia’ Legion;
  
• 🟣 Ivan Zhdanov;
  
• 🟣 Representatives of Russian diaspora organisations: Ksenia Maksimova, Aleksey Karikh, Irina Vesikko, Elena Gaeva, Margarita Kuchusheva, Aleksey Nesterenko;
  
• 🟣 Dissident Alexander Podrabinek;
  
• 🟣 Fedor Gorozhenko, a former collaborator of the ‘Navalny team’ and a character witness in the trial against Navalny;
  
• 🟣 Natalia Arno, Vladimir Kara-Murza (after leaving the Anti-War Committee), Vladimir Milov, Olga Galkina – proposed by the Free Russia Foundation;
  
• 🟣 Semyon Kochkin, activist of the ‘Navalny team’ and founder of the Angry Chuvashia project;
  
• 🟣 Sergey Ukhov, Navalny’s former chief of staff in Perm, creator of the Perm 36.6 channel;
  
• 🟣 Danila Buzanov, former coordinator of Navalny’s staff in Balakovo and witness in the case against Igor Rogov, accused of espionage for the FSB
  
• 🟣 The decoloniser Vasily Kryukov;
  
• 🟣 Mark Feygin, Olga Kurnosova, Rostislav Murzagulov, Gennady Gudkov, Andrey Volna, Vladislav Nobel-Oleynik – proposed by the Russian Opposition Forum in support of Ukraine;
  
• 🟣 Helga Pirogova, Igor Glek, Elena Filina, Svetlana Utkina and Nikita Kirillov – former members of ‘Deputies of Peaceful Russia‘, candidates from European Choice of Russia.
  

Navalny’s team publicly declined to submit nominations, but said they were ready to support anyone who approached them and was deemed worthy.

The Russian Duma immediately threatened criminal consequences for Russian émigré citizens who applied for the PACE.
Vasily Piskaryov, head of Moscow’s parliamentary committee on foreign interference, said that the PACE had closed the application phase and would now proceed with the selection process. According to him, terrorists, extremists, nationalists, defectors, LGBT activists, foreign agents, feminists and ‘radicals’ living in NATO countries applied.

“Any cooperation with international organisations in which Russia does not participate, including assistance in the preparation of anti-Russian proposals or sanctions, will lead to criminal consequences,” Piskaryov said, adding that these people will sooner or later be “extradited to Russia for due process”.

✅ Applications are now closed. We await the voting, selection and start of the platform work.