By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov said on Monday that his decision to leave Russia was “a tactical retreat” necessitated by his inability to practice politics effectively due to growing pressure from the authorities.
Gudkov, who was held in custody for two days last week in a case he said was fabricated, said on Sunday he had left Russia after receiving warnings from people close to the Kremlin that he would be arrested if he remained in the country.
Gudkov, who sat in Russia’s lower house of parliament until 2016, had hoped to run for a seat again in September but said the pressure on him and his family from the authorities had made it impossible to pursue politics inside Russia for now.
“I think that by remaining in the country, I cannot be effective in an environment where essentially any political activity leads to jail terms not only for the politicians themselves, but for their supporters and family members,” Gudkov, who is now in Ukraine, wrote on Facebook.
“This is not a defeat,” he said about his decision to flee. “This is a tactical retreat to redeploy forces.”
The Kremlin says that legal cases against Gudkov and other opposition figures ahead of this year’s parliamentary election are not connected to politics.
A number of activists critical of the Kremlin have been put under house arrest, fled the country or been jailed on charges they say are politically motivated.
Gudkov was expelled from the Just Russia party, which often supports the Kremlin on major issues, in 2013 for organising anti-Kremlin street protests.
He has accused the Kremlin of cracking down on the opposition to make it impossible for independent candidates to run in this year’s parliamentary election. The Kremlin has denied trying to clear the field of political opponents.
Gudkov told Ukrainian television on Monday that he would join his parents in Bulgaria after completing previously scheduled engagements in Kyiv.
Gudkov’s father Gennady is a former politician and Kremlin critic who relocated to the Bulgarian port city of Varna in 2019 as a precautionary measure.
“I want to return to Russia but it’s hard to say when,” Dmitry Gudkov told Ukraine 24 television station.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber in Moscow; Additional reporting by Ilya Zhegulev in Kyiv; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
