by Andrea Nicastro
The anti-Kremlin Russian: «I believe that Putin’s regime can only be fought with armed struggle. I’m the Russian De Gaulle, I’m not afraid to go home.”
A Russian who gets along with the Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a rare commodity these days. At least as much as an opponent of Putin who has not yet been poisoned or a (former) Moscow Duma deputy who is hoping for a defeat for Russia. But Ilya Ponomarev is not afraid to be original. Billionaire at 32, MP at 32, in exile at 41, someone who listed his company on the Nasdaq in New York at 43 is not to be underestimated. With the bodyguards at the door, a gun on his belt and a cup of tea in hand (“Don’t worry, my boys checked it”), he says confidently, “Yeah, of course you can write it down, because the political scheme is accurate the same: I am the Russian De Gaulle».
Means what?
«I am the only one who believes in armed struggle against Vladimir Putin’s regime. The only certainty that by the time of Putin’s collapse, the Free Russia Legion, now fighting under the banner of the Ukrainian army, will take fundamental action to hold the Russian Federation together.
But De Gaulle was a general, she doesn’t even have a uniform.
“But I am the political representative of the Legion, the sponsor of the People’s Congress preparing the new democratic state of Russia and the spokesman for the partisans fighting within the Federation under the name NRA, Nation Republican Army.”
what would they be
“Those who killed Darya Dugina on August 20.”
Did she order it?
“The NRA acts autonomously, I am their voice. The goal, they explained to me, should have been the father-daughter duo. Dugin senior calls himself the creator of the idea of ”Novorossiya” at the base of the invasion. She was the operational arm, a radical belligerent who conceived the fire at the prison of the Azov Battalion’s prisoners, burning 50 alive. Father and daughter should have died together, and instead, at the last minute, she went with another person who was driving the car drove the Russians did not want to identify themselves. Probably a spy.”
Do you think the Russian people would welcome your legion after killing so many conscripts?
«I come back to the example of De Gaulle. Then he too shot at the Vichy French, French against French, and nobody had a say.”
Tell me about your legion.
“It’s Russians, more than 400 and less than a thousand, fighting Putin’s army under the Ukrainian flag. The waiting list is 10,000 people. In addition, before admission, they must be checked by a psychologist and a polygraph. The process is slow. But it won’t take that many to march on Moscow.”
Is it exaggerating?
“If Zelenskyy retakes Crimea, Russian patriots will overthrow Putin, the system will collapse, and my legion will come to Moscow to lead the popular uprising.”
But what if you’re afraid to even show a blank sheet of paper?
“People will take to the streets en masse once they realize it’s reasonably safe. For that you need the armed legion patrolling the streets.«
No police, army, 007, Wagner mercenaries to stop you?
“Historically, when the leader collapses, the structures of the state step aside, waiting to understand who will take his place. So they put themselves in his service.”
Why aren’t these structures kicking Putin out now?
«Today’s Russia works with fear like Stalin. Putin invented Wagner’s mercenaries and Kadyrov’s Chechen militiamen to weaken the Defense Ministry and the General Staff. They spy on each other and are ready to report to the Kremlin. They hate each other, but neither is strong enough to take out the other. They all need Putin to defend them.”
Where does so much power come from?
“Of corruption. To have a career in Russia you have to have stolen something, so Putin has a dossier to blackmail you with. It’s like that on all levels, if you’re clean they can’t trust you and they won’t let you into the club, if instead you’re incompetent they’ll, at best, move you around.
January 25, 2023 (change January 25, 2023 | 22:23)
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