Khodorkovsky was invited to a conference in Munich instead of the Russian authorities

The organizers of the Munich Security Conference this year refused to invite representatives of the Russian government. Instead, representatives of the opposition, in particular Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Garry Kasparov, were invited to the event.

President of the conference Christoph Heusgen interview The MDR television channel explained the decision by the reluctance to give the Russian authorities a platform for propaganda.

“The statements we hear daily from the Kremlin do not allow us to conclude that Russia will back down one iota from what Putin proclaimed as the goal of the war, namely the destruction of Ukraine,” Heusgen said. .

The forum will open on February 17.

The Munich Security Conference has been held since 1962. Heads of state, government, ministers, politicians and public figures from dozens of countries participate. Russia has participated in the conference since 1999. In 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a speech at the Munich Conference. In his speech, he sharply criticized the United States and its allies for “an attempt to establish a unipolar world” for NATO expansion, which, in his words, poses a threat to Russia. This speech is considered one of the starting points from which the deterioration of Russian relations with Western countries began. In 2022, the Russian authorities for the first time in more than 20 years refused to participate in the forum. According to them, “in recent years, the conference has increasingly transformed itself into a transatlantic forum, losing its inclusiveness and objectivity”.