Russian opposition's war of words angers activists
At the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Olga Galkina tried in vain to liven up a group of fellow Russian exiles standing in the rain at a demonstration.
Galkina, a former Saint Petersburg city councillor, looked at the 30-odd people gathered for the protest on October 3.
They were staging a counter-protest against a demonstration organised by German politician Sahra Wagenknecht, who is calling for an end to military aid to Ukraine -- and they were not in a cheerful mood.
For weeks now, various factions in the fragmented and exiled opposition to President Vladimir Putin's regime have been tearing each other apart.
In recent weeks, the camp of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny accused rivals led by ex-oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky of having ordered attacks on some of its key members.
Then another camp stepped in with accusations against the Navalny camp.
Now anti-Kremlin movements are clashing with each other on social media.
But the in-fighting has exasperated activists who just want to get back to fighting Putin's regime and supporting Ukraine.
- 'In the same trench' -
Berlin is home to thousands of Russian anti-Kremlin exiles and Ukrainian refugees.
"We are all forced to be in the same trench right now," said Galkina, who left Russia days into the 2022 Ukraine invasion.
"Until the moment when we can come back to Russia and do politics there, we cannot allow ourselves to argue," she told AFP.
"All feuds should be put aside until the moment when we get back," she said.
"We have one common enemy, that enemy is Putin."
In the last few weeks however, it has not seemed that way.
Last month, Navalny's Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK) published an investigation claiming that Leonid Nevzlin, a businessman close to the rival Khodorkovsky camp, of having ordered attacks on their members.
They said he was behind a hammer attack on one of their leaders, Leonid Volkov, in Lithuania this spring -- and an assault on Navalny associate Ivan Zhdanov in Geneva in June last year.
They also accused him of being behind an attack on the wife of an economist, beaten up in Argentina last year.
- Claim and counterclaim -
Navalny's team bases its accusations on extracts from Nevzlin's correspondence, which it says it got from a shadowy figure, Andrei Matus, who had worked with Russia's FSB security service.
Khodorkovsky has denied any involvement, suggesting the Navalny camp may have been manipulated by Moscow's agents.
Then another exiled opposition figure, Maxim Kats, stepped in with his own accusations.
Kats, who is in conflict with the Navalny team, accused the FBK of having covered up the dealings of crooked bankers who had stolen money from clients in Russia.
But as the accusations and counter-accusations have played out online, opposition activists have grown increasingly frustrated.
At the Berlin protest, exiled Russian Algimantas Shavshin admitted to being disheartened at the lack of unity.
Shavshin, who arrived in Germany at the end of 2023, said many exiled Russians who are against the war are "unmotivated" and "have the impression that their voice cannot be heard".
- Trying to stay neutral -
In an interview with AFP last week, ex-oligarch Khodorkovsky played down the rows.
"This is natural in a situation when there is an unknown amount of time until the regime is defeated," he said.
Kira Yarmysh, a spokeswoman for the Navalny camp, did not respond to requests from AFP.
Ilya Yashin, released from a Russian prison this summer in an East-West swap, is among those who have tried to stay clear of the faction-fighting.
At an event in Warsaw this week, he said he did not want to be dragged into the feuding, but admitted a feeling of powerlessness.
"I don't have the ability to take everyone by the scruff of the neck, put them round a table and say: 'Make peace'," he said.
But he vowed not to get drawn into any disputes. "There is a war on," he said.
"None of this has any meaning while Putin is killing people and bombing cities."
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