Overview
- The Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe approved a forum of 15 participants, combining 10 opposition figures and five representatives of indigenous and national minority communities.
- Named opposition members include Natalia Arno, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Dmitry Gudkov, Mark Feigin, Garry Kasparov, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Oleg Orlov, Andrey Volna, Lyubov Sobol and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova.
- Indigenous and minority participants are Ruslan Kutaev, Ekaterina Kuznetsova, Vasily (Baltay) Matenov, Lana Pylaeva and Pavel Sulyandziga, with no Volga peoples listed in the final lineup.
- PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos will lead the platform, with involvement from representatives of Germany, Spain, Hungary, Romania and Cyprus, and members may address committee sessions with the president’s permission.
- Eligibility is tied to the 2023 Berlin Declaration, a criterion criticized by FBK, whose political projects head Leonid Volkov dismissed the platform's significance; the first meeting is scheduled for January 29.