Mikhail Khodorkovsky

This is why responsibility without guilt, dignity without permission frightens the Kremlin.

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[16/16]

People have varying tolerances for risk. Some will leave their jobs; some will help victims; some will speak out when it is most dangerous. Others will simply refuse to applaud. That alone is enough to cease being part of "the mass."

[15/16]

Not only do I not see collective responsibility as humiliation, I see it as its opposite: a restoration of dignity. It tells a person: you are not merely an object of history; you have a choice—a small, risky, imperfect, but real choice.

[14/16]

The formula was harsh but honest: we are not all criminals, but we all answer for making sure this never happens again. That gave people the right to act rather than make excuses.

[13/16]

After the Second World War, Germany could have been cemented forever in the status of the guilty. But Germany changed — not because it was shamed endlessly, but because a shift occurred inside the country from collective guilt to collective responsibility.

[12/16]

You slammed the brakes but they failed, the person is still hurt, and the consequences do not disappear because your intentions were good. We did not prevent this war, and we will have to reckon with that — even those of us who changed citizenship, or who, like me, spent a decade in prison.

[11/16]

To be clear: responsibility exists even when you tried to prevent the outcome. Thousands of people went to jail and paid a high price for opposing Putin long before the full-scale invasion. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to change the course of history.

[10/16]

Collective guilt turns people from subjects into victims, and a victim has no obligation to act, a victim can only suffer and watch.

For the Kremlin, this is what an ideal citizen looks like.

[9/16]

In that moment, responsibility is replaced by grievance and the question of action becomes a question of identity. The state transforms from the source of catastrophe into the defender against foreign hatred.

[8/16]

This matters because the conversation about collective guilt is extremely convenient for the Kremlin, because it allows them to say "they don't hate us for the war, they hate us for who we are — for being Russian."

[7/16]

Collective responsibility starts from a different question entirely — not "who is guilty?" but "what am I doing about what is being done in my name, what I could not prevent?"

[6/16]

Collective guilt tells a person: you are guilty because you belong to a group, how you acted and what choices you made are of little significance. You are already condemned regardless of what you do, and that is a moral trap.

[5/16]

Now, change the scenario: your brakes fail due to a manufacturing defect. You aren't guilty of a crime or negligence, but the pedestrian is still hurt. The responsibility to address the consequences is yours regardless.

[4/16]

A simple example: if you hit a pedestrian while speeding, you are guilty because you broke the law, and you are responsible for the consequences. Both apply simultaneously.

[3/16]

Guilt and responsibility are two concepts that are constantly, and often intentionally, are treated interchangeably in the context of Putin's illegal war in Ukraine. Let me explain why they are different — and why it is important.

[2/16]

The Kremlin wants Russians to feel guilty about the war — not responsible, but guilty.

There is a critical difference between the two, and Putin exploits it deliberately (Read on 🧵)

[1/16]

She shared a few posts about Bucha with 20 online friends. For that, Putin's court sentenced a 59-year-old woman to 5 years in a penal colony. Her disabled husband, who recently suffered a heart attack, is left with no one to care for him.

This is Natalya Yakimova. She supported Putin's war and helped Russian soldiers. Then a Russian missile killed her adopted son and grandson in Ukraine — and she changed her mind.

The 25-year-old radio station was taken off the air 4 years ago. It was the only station where you could hear open criticism of Putin. Now its frequency is taken by the propagandist Radio Sputnik.

"If Russia's worst enemies wanted to destroy it, they'd do exactly what Putin does" — this is what I said in my last interview with Echo of Moscow in 2022.

How to Slay a Dragon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is one of the most astute observers of today’s Russia. Imprisoned for a decade in Russia’s prisons on politically motivated charges, he knows all too well the best and the worst o...

The book is here: www.google.com/books/editio...

Follow for more on the Russian opposition

[12/12]

Putin has built a gangster state around one man. He is 73, and he will not be around forever. What matters now is what vision of the future we have that makes sure no other person can become him.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02...

[11/12]

Meanwhile, problems mount at home: a faltering economy, crumbling infrastructure, hundreds of thousands of men returning from Ukraine, and record treason charges against war critics in 2025. Isolation is pushing Putin into an increasingly unequal relationship with China.

[10/12]

They have dropped the pretence because the opposition in exile has grown too loud to ignore. None of these absurd charges will stop us. We will continue to increase our presence at PACE and with parliaments and international organisations globally.

[9/12]

This is a shift. For decades, Putin attacked opponents with invented "non-political" charges. I was imprisoned 10 years on fabricated economic crimes. Navalny was murdered on similar charges. Now the Kremlin openly calls opponents terrorists and their ideas extremist.

[8/12]

On January 28, I attended the Platform's first meeting. PACE reiterated support for those opposing the war and endorsed our vision of a transformed Russia. Within days, my book was proscribed and I was fined. Within weeks, the Supreme Court lawsuit was filed.

[7/12]

The Kremlin reacted furiously. They referenced our 2023 Berlin Declaration, where we called for the end of the Putin regime, and accused us of "financing Ukrainian paramilitary nationalist units."

[6/12]

Here is what actually happened: in October, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe created a Platform for Dialogue with the Russian opposition in exile. For the first time, a recognised international body gave legitimacy to the alternative to Putin's regime.

[5/12]

The Anti-War Committee was founded alongside other prominent pro-democratic Russians to oppose Putin's regime and the invasion of Ukraine. In October, the Kremlin designated its members terrorists, accusing us of planning a "violent seizure of power."

[4/12]

Separately, I was fined 50,000 roubles for "violating foreign agent regulations." And the Russian Supreme Court has accepted a lawsuit to designate our Anti-War Committee — which I co-founded in 2022 — a terrorist organisation.

[3/12]