Open Russia

Open Russia is a name shared by two initiatives advocating democracy in Russia founded by businessman and democracy activist Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The first initiative took the form of a foundation whose stated purpose was to build and strengthen civil society in Russia. It was originally established in 2001 by Khodorkovsky in concert with the shareholders of his firm, Yukos.^[1] It was closed in 2006. Khodorkovsky relaunched Open Russia in September 2014 as an online project that intended to serve as a “nationwide community platform.”

First founding

This first incarnation of Open Russia has been described by The Guardian as a charity organization.^[2] Its board included Henry Kissinger and Lord Jacob Rothschild.^[3][4] According to the Moscow Times, the earlier incarnation of Open Russia funded “many philanthropic projects, including educational projects for young people, the Federation of Internet Education, the Club of Regional Journalism and projects of human rights NGOs.”^[5]

After Khodorkovsky's arrest in 2003, his deputy Leonid Nevzlin took over Open Russia. He was succeeded by Nikolay Bychkov.^[6]

As of 2005, Open Russia had 23 regional affiliates. On February 24, 2005, Russia’s Tax Service initiated an inspection of Open Russia, its third such probe in 12 months. A spokesmen for the organization said that “the authorities are endeavoring to sully the only structure left in the hands of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.”^[6] The first incarnation of Open Russia closed in 2006 when Russian authorities froze its bank accounts.

Relaunch

Open Russia was re-launched on September 20, 2014, as “a nationwide community platform designed to bring together all Russians interested in creating a better life for themselves and their children.”^[1] The relaunch was announced at an “opening videoconference that linked civil society activists in ten cities across Russia—from Kaliningrad to Tomsk.”^[7]

The opening conference, noted the World Affairs Journal (WAJ), was “greeted with the typical official response,” with nearly all of the regional locations experiencing Internet connection problems just moments before the conference. In Moscow, stated WAJ, “conference participants were confronted by 'journalists' from the notorious NTV channel, which specializes in slandering civil society and opposition activists.” While in Yaroslavl, “someone sabotaged the door lock the night before the conference, leaving activists unable to enter, and the technical equipment blocked inside.” Similarly, pro-Putin forces in Nizhny Novgorod “stormed the hall where conference participants were assembled.”^[7]

“Russia has been closed for too long,” said Khodorkovsky at the opening conference. Open Russia, he said, “is about opening ourselves to new ways of thinking, to new and better ways of living. Open Russia will work to help communities all across the country to organize themselves into civic and activist groups that steadily and purposefully amass experience in joint action to assert their interests.” He maintained that the “old way of politics, where you slowly build an opposition political party, is no longer possible, and no longer effective. Only in this new, open and modern way is change for the better possible.”^[1]

He has called on Russians to contemplate their country's post-Putin future. He also emphasized that the new version of Open Russia was not a political party but an online “platform.”^[2] The online relaunch ceremony was attended by prominent Russian activists and emigrés, including Sergei Guriyev and Yevgeny Chichvarkin.^[2]

The Guardian reported that Khodorkovky’s relaunch of Open Russia “appears to break his promise to steer clear of politics, which he made after being pardoned by president Vladimir Putin in December.”^[2] The New York Times stated, however, that Khodorkovsky had in fact “agreed to stay out of politics until August, when he would have been released anyway. Now freed from that commitment, he is making clear that prison has, if anything, emboldened him in his desire to change his country.”^[8]

Khodorkovsky told an American audience that Russia had “been wasting time” during Putin's rule of the nation at an October 2014 dinner sponsored by Freedom House. He continued stating “now is when we must begin to make up this lost time.”^[8]

Objectives

Open Russia was “intended to unite pro-European Russians in a bid to challenge Putin’s grip on power,” according to The Guardian. Khodorkovsky said at the launch ceremony that he and his Open Russia colleagues “support what they call the European choice or a state governed by the rule of law” He rejected the claim that “Russia is not Europe,” calling this “a lie that is being imposed on society on purpose” by “those who want to rule the country for life, those who want to spit upon law and justice.” Russia, he insisted, is “Europe, both in terms of geography and culture.”^[2] Khodorkovsky said that “about 12% of Russians today support the idea of a European-style government, but support in Moscow is probably around 30%.” He stated that these people could have a significant impact, since “Russian politics is made in big cities.” It is such individuals whom he seeks to bring together through Open Russia.^[9] He also said that he hoped to convince more Russians to support the idea of a Europe-oriented Russia.^[8]

Interviewed in an October 2014 article in the Wall Street Journal, Khodorkovsky said he planned to use Open Russia to push for a constitutional conference that would shift power away from the presidency and toward the legislature and judiciary. “The question of Russian power won’t be decided by democratic elections—forget about this,” Khodorkovsky said.^[9] Putin, he told the Council on Foreign Relations in the same month, was not Russia's main problem but was “merely a symbol of the problem,” the problem actually being “the lack of a law-based state” founded on “a constitution that has made it impossible to have a balance of powers.” A new constitutional assembly, he emphasized, would enable the country to “transition from a totalitarian figure of a president to a system of separation of powers.”^[1]

Activities

The new Open Russia declared that it will focus on three “key areas”: independent media, political education, and support for political prisoners.^[1]

In October 2014, Khodorkovky said that the Open Russia website “naturally with time will die from attacks, but for now, it is creating an opportunity for people to find one another and…to know how people implement projects—analogous projects in different regions.” He said that the new organization had already “gotten a huge number of proposals to work together and we're hoping that we will succeed in…implementing a part of them, not through ourselves, but by passing them on to other regions, from one region to another region.”^[1]

On September 13-14, 2014, Open Russia presented talks by Lyudmila Ulytskaya, Arina Borodina, and Dmitry Olshansky. The foundation's Open Talk project a series of live talks that will tour across Russia in the next few years.^[1]

Open Russia announced on October 22, 2014, that an online forum entitled “Political prisoners 2.0: are there any legal ways to disagree?” would take place on October 29, 2014.^[10]

Reactions

The Guardian noted that in September 2014 “Russian state media appeared to enforce a blackout on news coverage of Khodorkovky’s project.” According to Khodorkovky's spokeswoman Olga Pispanen, the project’s website was targeted by distributed denial of service attacks. Also, some activists were reportedly prevented from joining the ceremony in Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl.

Political analyst Mark Urnov called Open Russia a “sorely needed” project that represented an “antidote” to the current realities of Russian life.^[2]

The New York Times noted that when Khodorkovky made his first U.S. appearance since his release from prison, people who had known him before his incarceration “were surprised that he seemed so much like the man they knew then, unbroken by his decade behind bars. If anything, he seemed stronger and deeper than before. The notion of prison as cleansing the soul and ennobling the spirit is a powerful motif in Russian literature (see Dostoyevsky) and Russian reality (see Solzhenitsyn).” The Times quoted Leon Aron, a Russian émigré at the American Enterprise Institute, as saying: “There is a part of the Russian spirit that is tied to jail....There is a category of people who are not broken by the suffering in jail, but instead get crystallized there and become more serene but even more tenacious to the values that have been tested in jail.”^[8]

In April 2015, masked Russian police raided Open Russia’s Moscow office suspecting the organization of “preparing banners, leaflets and posters” with plans to distribute the material at an opposition protest. Open Russia responded by stating that the group “was not planning to take part” in the protest.^[11][12]

References

Registered political parties in Russia Represented in State Duma United Russia (238) Communist Party of the Russian Federation (92) A Just Russia (64) LDPR (56) Only in regional parliaments Patriots of Russia Communist Party of Social Justice Communists of Russia Rodina Green Alliance – The People's Party Russian Party of Pensioners for Justice Yabloko Right Cause Civic Platform Republican Party of Russia – People's Freedom Party Other registered (in the Justice Ministry's order) Democratic Party of Russia People's Party for the Women of Russia Union Towns People People's Party of Russia Social Democratic Party of Russia Cities of Russia Young Russia New Russia Party of Free Citizens Russian Ecological Party "The Greens" Agrarian Party of Russia Russian All-People's Union Party for Justice Civilian Power Clever Russia Monarchist Party Home Country Party of Peace and Unity Democratic Choice Will Against All Russian United Labour Front Party Action Civil Position Party of Russia's Rebirth Official list of parties registered by the Ministry of Justice Portal:Politics List of political parties Politics of Russia Russian political movements and non-registered parties