Speaking at the expert discussion "How Ukraine can resist Moscow's new antics", where the question of why Russia is trying to accuse Ukraine of involvement in organizing the terrorist attack in Crocus City was discussed, Ilya Ponomaryov, Chairman of the Congress of People's Deputies, expressed the opinion that this is a traditional propaganda technique of the Kremlin, which was used back in the early 2000s to discredit the Chechen national resistance

“Instead of the Russian opposition, let’s call it ‘Russian resistance’, because we need to distinguish the difference between those on the ground with weapons making a difference and those who want to create a more comfortable life for themselves somewhere in the West. The political component of this resistance has not yet been actualised, and Putin is trying to do everything possible to destroy the movement in this direction. From the very beginning, after the terrorist attack, he started talking about the trail of those former Russians who went to Ukraine in 2014,” said Ilya Ponomarev during his speech.

At the same time, he emphasized that only at first glance all this looks like nonsense and complete nonsense, but behind all this we can see the scenario that Putin used during the Chechen war. At that time, the sympathies of the whole world were initially on the side of the Chechen resistance, but after a series of terrorist attacks inside Russia, public opinion in different countries changed. "This is the same thing Putin is doing now. Our strategy should not be a defense strategy, but an offensive strategy. We must expose all these tricks that Putin is doing and not give him the opportunity to succeed" - stated the politician.

In addition, Ilya Ponomarev drew attention to the fact that now the dialog with Russia should become a dialog with the units of the Russian resistance. And this should concern, first of all, international platforms, such as, for example, the soon-to-be-planned Peace Summit in Switzerland. "Let's bring to this Peace Summit the armed opposition, the new Russian government, an alternative to Putin's government. And let's actually talk about that strategy to achieve peace, that construct that can be created after the Ukrainian victory" - he added. In his opinion, they are now the voice of the people, the government representing an alternative to Putin's regime, which wants to work on a strategy for peace, on the design of a new Russian Republic. And this is the common cause of the entire Ramstein coalition, of all the countries that will participate in this Peace Summit, and together with whom the Russian resistance forces should be able to prescribe the international rules of the game of the future. All the more so because the activity and importance of these forces has recently increased manifold and they are already posing a real military and especially political threat to the Putin regime, which has been forced to move from a position of ignoring them to attempts to discredit the resistance forces.

The full expert discussion can be viewed here: