“We would like to take it to the highest level,” he added, in a seeming reference to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Kara-Murza made the remarks after addressing members of the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday together with Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of former Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison last year. Navalny’s team claims he was murdered on Putin’s orders.
Ilya Yashin, another Russian opposition politician who took part in Thursday’s discussion in Brussels, said the EU could mediate between Russia’s democratic movement and Ukraine’s government.
“We want to start this dialogue with Ukraine,” Yashin said, claiming that Zelenskyy had expressed openness to talking with them. “We are not enemies to Ukraine … and want to sustain its independence,” Yashin added.
POLITICO has contacted the Ukrainian foreign ministry for comment.
Splits between Ukrainians and the Russian opposition fall largely along the lines of responsibility toward the war. Many in Ukraine hold the Russian people responsible for Moscow’s aggression, while dissidents have been trying to push that it is Putin’s war, with average Russians as much victims as Ukrainians.