Review: The Hunt for Regime Critics in Exile

Authoritarian regimes such as Russia, China, Iran and others are increasingly cracking down on opposition figures living in exile. Whilst these individuals could previously live relatively protected lives in Western democracies, globalisation and digitalised surveillance programmes have made it easier for despots to track down their victims.

The war in Ukraine has highlighted the abuses and persecutions that the Putin regime directs against exiled war and regime opponents: soldiers who desert, journalists with sources in the Russian state apparatus, or oligarchs [1] – none can consider themselves safe.

Jyllands-Posten [2] journalist Poul Funder Larsen has written a “book for our times” – Liquidated by the Kremlin – The Hunt for the Russian Opposition from Trotsky to Navalny.

The book provides readers with a chronological overview from Stalin-era liquidations and deportations, through the 1990s mafia society, to recent decades where Putin’s tentacles reach defectors and dissidents, system critics, regardless of where they reside.

The Early Victims

The earliest victims of Stalin’s dispatched murderers were in the years following the revolution. This affected, amongst others, militant supporters of the Tsarist regime and exiled left-wing communists.

The liquidations were a continuation of the extensive purges that took place in the Soviet Union from the revolution onwards.

They targeted persons of great symbolic significance, key figures in the opposition, with Trotsky [3] as the most famous. This tactic served both to paralyse the exiled opposition and to instil fear in the more peripheral figures: “When will my turn come?”

The purges and persecutions of opposition figures were one of the most inexcusable mistakes the Bolsheviks committed and contributed to seriously weakening the communist revolution.

Modern Resistance and Risks

Despite the considerable risk associated with opposing Putin, this does not deter, for example, the brave journalists at the online media outlet Meduza [4] from writing about the war in Ukraine, what happens in the circles of power in the Kremlin, and how the population relates to the war. Meduza, which has its editorial office in Latvia, is continuously subjected to harassment, destruction of facilities, threats against employees, etc. Nevertheless, Meduza continues to provide the insight into Russian conditions that we are otherwise denied, thanks to the EU’s blockade of Russian media.

Why Do People Become Assassins?

Funder has selected a series of examples of persecution and murders of opposition figures, and these are in themselves both brutal and thrillingly told. He also discusses what drove/drives Stalin’s and Putin’s dispatched agents. Among other things, he introduces the English MICE theory [5] about the motives for taking on the job: Motivation – Ideology – Coercion – and Ego/vanity.

In Putin’s Russia, there is not much ideology – if any at all. Now the driving force is mostly money, petty malice, vanity, or that the murderer is blackmailed into compliance.

Readers who want to know more about what lurks within the assassins can read Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago” or Vasily Grossman’s “Life and Fate” [6].

Beyond Assassinations

The Kremlin’s operatives do not concern themselves “only” with assassinations. Since 2014, and especially after February 2022 [7], sabotage has been carried out against arms factories in Wales, Berlin, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and the USA. As well as fires in warehouses and shipments in Poland and the Baltic states – all directed against weapons that were to be sent to Ukraine.

In addition, there has been an increasing number of cyber attacks against Western institutions, governments and companies. These cannot, however, be attributed exclusively to Russia, but have several potential senders, e.g., Iran, North Korea, but also young Western tech nerds who have decided they want to “bring down the systems.”

Last year it was revealed that the head of Rheinmetall [8], the largest German arms factory, Armin Papperger, was supposed to have been liquidated.

The entire area is surrounded by considerable uncertainty. Who is really behind the cyber attacks? Here the West makes it easy for itself when it hastily declares “that it is the Russians who did it.” Which turned out not to be the case with the Nord Stream gas pipeline [9].

Other Countries Can Also Participate

Russian assassinations of exiled regime critics are not unique. Not many surpass Mossad [10] when it comes to murders abroad. And the CIA can also participate. They are just more sophisticated than the Russians, so they “outsource” the killings to local death squads and the like.

The American NGO Freedom House [11] has issued a list of countries that execute exiled regime critics. It turns out that a quarter of all countries participate. China tops the list with approximately 22 per cent, and here it is especially the Uighurs [12] who are the target, but there have also been, according to The Guardian, attempts to murder Taiwan’s vice-president during a visit to Prague in the spring.

After China comes Russia, Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Myanmar. Saudi Arabia’s bloody annihilation of journalist Jamal Khashoggi [13] also deserves to be remembered as a manifestation of what a country that is within the Western embrace can get away with.

In the period 2014-2022, there were allegedly approximately 1,200 political assassinations globally, but here too there are dark figures. As something new, it is now no longer one’s own citizens who are pursued; critical journalists of other nationalities must also look over their shoulders. Most victims are Muslims, whilst journalists are the most exposed professional group – also in the EU (Malta [14], Czech Republic, Italy – in connection with organised crime with relations to politicians).

Frightening Perspectives

The book is thoroughly researched and covers a wide range. Funder Larsen uses a mix of archival materials, academic literature, and his own interviews with key persons. I feel that I have followed the history and development of modern Soviet Union/Russia well, but I became wiser along the way. And surely the same applies to those interested in Russian history and security policy who wish to understand the dynamics behind liquidations. Here, “Liquidated by the Kremlin” is an important reading experience.

The many names and details can seem overwhelming for readers without historical background. However, not more than one can Google or ask ChatGPT [15].

There are – at least – two frightening perspectives in the book. A closer account of these falls outside the topic but should absolutely be taken up in another context.

One is that the democratic countries increasingly have difficulty protecting those who are subjected to persecution, harassment, assault or murder. This also constitutes a threat to the ordinary legal conditions in the democracies that give shelter to the persecuted.

Equally disturbing is the perspective that Fox News host Tucker Carlson [16] raises in the interview with Putin in February 2024 [17], where Carlson said “that any leader kills people, some more than others... leadership requires that one kills people...”

As more and more right-wing authoritarian leaders come to power around the globe, there is every reason to take Carlson’s statement literally.

Arne Lund