A view from the West

I am not Russian and I have no Russian or Ukrainian roots. I grew up in Western Europe, far away from Russia and from the history and conflicts that still shape the country today.

For most people in the West, Russia is quite simple. We know Putin, we know the war, and we know a few opposition personalities from our newspapers and television. Beyond that, Russia is often just Russia, a country of more than 140 million people we hardly ever talk about.

My own view has changed a lot over the last four years. Through my work with the Russian resistance, I started talking to people I would probably never have met otherwise. I discovered regional movements, people helping political prisoners, activists, volunteers and people resisting the regime from inside Russia. Some have very different ideas about what should come after Putin, and they don't all agree with each other. But that is also part of the reality that is often missing when we talk about Russia in the West.

Most people here have never heard of them. They know the names of a few well-known opposition politicians, but they know very little about the much wider resistance around them. And I think we may regret that one day.

There is a lot of discussion in Europe about what Russia should look like after Putin. Should it remain a federation? Could some regions become independent? Who could take power and who would the West be willing to work with? I follow these discussions, but I have never felt that these decisions belong to me. I can have an opinion, but in the end it is not my country. The people living there, including the different peoples and regions of Russia, will have to decide their own future.

I also understand why it is difficult to talk about Russian resistance in the West today. Russia has been waging this war for years. We have seen threats, propaganda, espionage and attempts to influence our countries. So when somebody comes to us and says, “I am Russian and I want to change Russia,” trust doesn't come automatically. Why should it?

But that makes personal contacts even more important. We need to know who these people are, what they stand for and what they are doing. And they need to understand us as well. There are things about Europe and the West that are difficult to understand from inside the Russian political world, just as there are things about Russia that I needed years to understand.

I don't think we should wait for one big opposition movement or one famous person who somehow represents everybody. I don't believe that person exists. The people I have met are far too different for that, politically and personally, and their ideas about Russia's future can be very different too.

For me, that isn't necessarily a weakness. It is simply something the West has to understand if we ever want to deal seriously with the people who may play a role in what comes after Putin.

That is also where I see my own place. I don't support the Russian resistance because I want to tell Russians what their country should become. That's not my decision to make. What I can do is bring people together, explain what I see from here and help voices that are almost unknown in the West reach people who would otherwise never hear them.

I have learned a lot from doing this, including that the West and the Russian resistance often know surprisingly little about each other.

Putin will not be there forever. Nobody knows whether change will come slowly or whether one day things will suddenly move very quickly. But when it happens, I don't think that will be the right moment for Europe to start looking around and asking who else exists besides the Kremlin and the same opposition figures we have known for years.

Those contacts should exist before they are needed.

There are people inside and outside Russia already thinking about what comes next. Others are taking risks today without knowing whether they will ever see the Russia they are fighting for.

Their future is theirs to decide.

But I would like the West to know who they are.

Freya FAE