Anti-Kremlin former Russian politicians gathered in Jabłonna near Warsaw to discuss the future of Russia and draw plans for ousting Vladimir Putin.

The three-day gathering that began Friday was organised by Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of the State Duma and the only Russian lawmaker to vote against the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Participants included 22 former members of Russian organs of power, most of them in office in the 1990s and early 2000s, who now oppose Putin’s regime.

“They are legitimate representatives of the Russian nation, both the ones who came from the Russian Federation, as well as those living in exile, that have not profaned their honour by cooperation with Putin’s dictatorship and participation in its crimes,” said Ponomarev, as quoted by Gazeta.pl.

Among those who attended, many said Russians could only oust Putin if they staged a revolution or a civil war, which would, according to some, would require Russians to bear arms and even kill Putin.

Opposition activist Viacheslav Maltsev said a revolution was the only way to bring down Putin and pointed to opponents of the president in Russia currently being involved in a “guerilla fight” aimed at ending the war in Ukraine even if this has not yet been confirmed by the media.

“The main goal is to physically eliminate Putin,” he said, adding that the consequence would be a civil war, “but not as bloody as the war in Ukraine.”

“The fight against terrorists requires terrorists’ methods,” one of the politicians said, Gazeta Wyborcza reported.

But some, like independent Belsat TV, have criticised the meeting participants for not representing the entire opposition movement in Russia.

They do not even include a part of the opposition’s groups, tweeted Michał Potocki, journalist of Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily.

For example, the supporters of jailed opposition politician Alexey Navalny did not participate in the three-day gathering.

Navalny’s supporters consider the methods of those who participated in the meeting as too violent and prefer peaceful means to topple Putin’s regime.

Agnieszka Legucka, an analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs also expressed scepticism about the meeting in Jabłonna.

“There are a lot of Russian groups more worth supporting,” she told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl