Russia accuses exiled opponents of plot to violently seize power

An exiled Kremlin critic, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has been accused by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) of creating a "terrorist organisation" and of plotting to violently seize power.

The FSB said it had opened a criminal case against Khodorkovsky and was investigating more than 20 people as part of the same charge. These include prominent dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, ex-prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov and leading economists Sergei Aleksashenko and Sergei Guriev.

It comes just two weeks after a "platform for dialogue" with Russian democratic forces in exile was announced by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a human rights forum of lawmakers from 46 European countries.

The FSB claimed Khodorkovsky was presenting this platform as replacement Russian leadership. He was also accused of funding Ukrainian paramilitary units in order to use them to try to eventually seize power.

Khodorkovsky rejects accusations

Khodorkovsky denied the accusations and called the criminal case a sign that the Kremlin sees the Council of Europe initiative as "a major problem".

"Hence the new cases about 'seizing power', the lies about 'recruiting' and 'arming the Ukrainian military'," he said on Telegram.

Russia quit the Council of Europe in 2022 while facing expulsion over its invasion of Ukraine.

The case is likely to change little for the suspects, who live outside Russia and already faced the prospect of arrest if they returned. Many have been added to official registers of "foreign agents", extremists and terrorists.

But the announcement signals Moscow's determination to maintain pressure against exiled opponents of President Vladimir Putin, portray them as a threat to the state and counter any Western move to confer legitimacy on them.

Those under investigation include the entire membership of the Russian Anti-War Committee, a dissident group whose stated goal is to oppose Russia's war in Ukraine.

The Anti-War Committee said last week it planned to take an active part in the Council of Europe dialogue.Khodorkovsky, an oil tycoon who was once Russia's richest man, served 10 years in a Siberian prison on fraud charges that he and many Western countries said were politically motivated, before being pardoned in 2013 and leaving Russia.

Since 2022 he has positioned himself as a leading figure among Russian exiles who back Kyiv against Moscow in the Ukraine war. Shortly after the war's outbreak, he was designated a "foreign agent" by Russia.