Anti-Putin Russian activists invited in place of Kremlin to Munich Security Conference

Representatives of the Russian leadership were not invited to the prestigious Munich Security Conference this year as the organizers didn’t want to provide them with a platform for its propaganda, head conference organizer Christoph Heusgen announced in a radio interview with MDR on Feb. 1.

According to Heusgen, Russia was not invited due to Moscow's unwillingness to negotiate an end to war in Ukraine. Instead, the invitation was received by two high-profile exiled Russian activists: former chess champion and Human Rights Foundation chairperson Garry Kasparov as well as exiled oligarch and opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky,

The 59th Munich Security Conference is set to take place from Feb. 17 to Feb. 19 in Munich. This year, the center of discussions is expected to be around Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

No Russian representatives attended the last edition of the conference in February 2022, where Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a speech just five days before Russia's full-scale invasion, warning the world against appeasing Russia.

Zelensky's full speech at Munich Security Conference

The Kyiv Independent