Tallinn becoming the favourite meeting place for Russian opposition
28.08.2012, 15:07Tallinn seems to have become a meeting place for Russia’s opposition leaders because it is a place where they can freely speak, writes Eesti Päevaleht daily.
“I understand that they come to Tallinn so often because they can freely discuss things here. No-one is eavesdropping them. Actually, they said so themselves when I asked them why they come to Tallinn. They looked at me as if saying “but where else?” said Kristiina Ojuland, member of the European Parliament, who had an unofficial meeting with Garri Kasparov, chairman of Russian Front of United Citizens (OGF), one of the opposition movements, yesterday.
Kasparov was one of the opposition leaders who was briefly detained by Russian police when protesting outside the court house that was ruling on the Pussy Riot incident.
He has also promised to give RusDelfi an interview when in Estonia.
“The determination of Russian authorities to persecute the opposition has risen to a new level, even when one compares it with the situation a year ago,” said Ojuland.
Along with Kasparov, Tallinn also hosted Dmitri Gudkov, member of the Russian Duma whose father Gennadi Gudkov, also an MP, is involved in various political intrigues.
The group included Anastassia Udaltsova, wife of Sergei Udaltsov who is coordinating the activities of the Left Front.
Boriss Nemtsov, one of the fiercest critics of Kremlin, was also in Tallinn and left the town yesterday morning.
Ojuland who met only with Kasparov said that it was telling that Russian authorities have come up with another court case against Nemtsov although this is the same crime in which the court has already found him innocent.
In Tallinn, Ojuland and Kasparov discussed the activities of Russian opposition, especially the ongoing election of the coordination council of Russian opposition movements. The elections of the coordination council are planned to be conducted in October 20 and 21 both online and in specialised voting stations. The coordination council is set to have 45 members, with Kasparov being one of the candidates.