Divisions in Russia's opposition-in-exile are deepening, diverting its attention from political activism to infighting after allies of the late leader Alexei Navalny accused another opposition figure of ordering attacks against their activists, BTA writes, citing the "Reuters" agency.
The scandal is undermining already difficult efforts to forge a united front against the Kremlin, risks calling into question the opposition's credibility in the eyes of its supporters and the West, and pits the two most prominent opposition groups against each other, sparking a potentially lasting standoff.
The two opposition movements - one led by allies of the late Navalny and the other by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky - have engaged in public spats before, but their latest spat is the sharpest yet. Navalny's camp has publicly accused Leonid Nevzlin, an Israel-based tycoon and ally of Khodorkovsky, of ordering attacks on high-ranking Navalny allies Leonid Volkov and Ivan Zhdanov, as well as the wife of an Argentina-based activist.
In the most serious incident, Volkov was attacked outside his home in Vilnius, Lithuania, in March this year, just a month after Navalny's death in an Arctic penal colony. The hammer-wielding assailant broke his arm and injured his leg.
In a nearly hour-long video investigation published Thursday on the "YouTube" of Navalny, his team claims that this attack and two others were ordered not by the Russian state but by Nevzlin.
Both Nevzlin and Khodorkovsky, who spent a decade in Russian prisons on charges the West sees as politically motivated, dismissed the allegations as baseless.
After the death of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition was left without a clear leader. His widow, Yulia Navalny, has expressed her determination to continue his case and is urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to leave the Kremlin as top Navalny aides continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding her husband's death.
"This is really a serious blow against the (anti-Kremlin) protest movement,", Ivan Zhdanov, one of the attacked Navalny activists, said on Thursday evening via video link.
"It is hard to imagine how he (Nevzlin) could have done something more serious. In the future, every time there is an attack, people will wonder if Putin, Russian intelligence or some opposition figure is behind it," he added.
Dissident circles express shock
Navalny's Anti-Corruption Fund (FBC) said it had shared data from its investigation with law enforcement in the countries where Nevzlin traveled. The Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office declined to say whether it had received any materials from FBK, but added that the investigation into the attack on Volkov was ongoing.
In response on the social network "X" Nevzlin said the allegations appear to have been concocted in Moscow and are the same ones being circulated by Russian state media.
"Let an independent investigation first evaluate these so-called "materials," and if the investigators decide, let them be brought to justice in a democratic country,", he wrote.
Khodorkovsky condemned the attacks on activists but defended Nevzlin, saying the allegations appeared to be fabricated by Russian intelligence services.
"If FBK wants to accuse me of something, let him do it in court. And not to subtly ruin my reputation," Khodorkovsky said.
Many in Russian dissident circles expressed their shock on social media with often profanity-laced reactions to the news. But some have warned that the revelations change little and distract from the main task of defeating Putin.
"No matter how much damage the disputes do, that damage is not decisive," said University of Chicago economist Konstantin Sonin, who is on Russia's wanted list for his criticism of the war in Ukraine.
"The opposition by no means offers a solution to any of the important problems," he wrote in "Ex". In his words, its real task is to "return to the basic questions - how to stop the war?" How to defeat Putin and remove his regime?".