Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of the Russian Duma (parliament) and now a leader of the "shadow parliament" of Russian expatriates in Ukraine, told Newsmax Wednesday that Vladimir Putin's downfall "is not years, but months away" and his associates are ready to step in with a parliamentary form of government.
"Putin will fall," said Ponomarev, who met with reporters at the Washington, D.C., bureau of the Christian Science Monitor. "And we're not talking about years, but months away."
The high-tech entrepreneur famed as the lone vote in the Duma against Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 said the "Prigozhin episode" — his term for the attempted mutiny or coup last month led by Wagner Group mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin — was a sign of Putin's vulnerability and the strong chances of his being deposed.
"A DeGaulle-type model of resistance" — a reference to the Free French government of exile led by Charles DeGaulle in London during World War II — that is ready to assume power in a post-Putin Russia is how Ponomarev characterized the 98 former Duma members now meeting in Ukraine as Congress of People's Deputies.
"We would abolish the presidency [that Putin now occupies] and establish a new constitution with a strong parliamentary system of government," he told us, adding that a transfer of power would be "very manageable ... no one would fight for Putin [to remain in power]."
As to how the revolution he envisions would come about, Ponomarev feels there "is an 80% certainty Ukrainian forces will soon be in Crimea." And once that happens, "changes will come. The fall of Putin is linked to the military success of Ukraine."
Once Putin is deposed, Ponomarev feels, "a good bet to take over would be [Prime Minister Mikhail] Mishustin — a nice guy and reasonably pro-Western." But the dissident leader strongly believes the constitution he and his parliament-in-exile are cobbling together would succeed through "free and fair elections."
Other notable Russian expatriates are getting behind the Legion Freedom of Russia with which he is affiliated and which, he insists, "is probably the largest" of the anti-Putin groups outside Russia.
Perhaps the best-known Putin foe abroad, onetime multimillionaire and freed Russian prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky "is moving in that direction [toward supporting Legion Freedom of Russia]" and "we've also reached out to chess master Garry Kasparov."
Ponomarev does not see a role in governance of a post-Putin Russia for Alexei Navalny, the attorney who sought to challenge Putin at the polls and is now in prison.
"He's fighting for his release, and we want him out," said Ponomarev. But, very much like the late Slovak dissident Alexander Dubcek who emerged from 20-year isolation when the former Communist government was deposed in 1989, Navalny has been out of sight in prison and not a figure in the forefront of the opposition.
As for the U.S. and its role in a possible Putin overthrow, Ponomarev cautioned that the U.S. "should be careful and not become involved in regime change. We don't want other countries involved. Putin will fall. We're working on that."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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