Coverage of the “7th Forum of the Free Peoples of PostRussia” over Aug. 1-2 in Tokyo, Japan centered upon the outspoken Ilya Ponomarev. In hIs interview there with Japan’s NHK, he was identified as “a senior official in the political department of the Free Russian Army” (FRA). That group, in reality, is a motley gathering of 100-200 Russians exiles, intent on overthrowing Vladimir Putin by running across the border from Ukraine into Russia, shooting up civilians in small towns, and then running back into Ukraine later that day.
Ponomarev did his best to imply that the FRA’s “drone unit” might be involved in recent attacks upon Moscow. “The target was ‘Moscow City,’ which included the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.” He explained that the elitists in Russia’s government can be scared into flipping: “These people have no choice but to do work that supports the war even though they oppose it, and the only way to break this situation is to instill fear.” So, the “aim was to instill fear among senior regime officials who support the military invasion….” Doing so would flip them, and they would then “spread their voices against the regime….”
Curiously, as attendees gathered in Tokyo, two young Russian women, described as “anti-war activists in Russia” who left for Japan last November, were provided long-term status to stay in Japan. Two young women, suspected of being administrators for Ponomarev’s websites—"Russian Guerilla” and “February Morning"—were amongst 11 such people, in five different cities, detained and questioned on September 8, 2022 by Russian authorities in the investigation of the Aug. 20, 2022 assassination in Moscow of Russian journalist Darya Dugina.
Ponomarev had announced, within hours of the Dugina carbombing, that he was the official spokesman for the “National Republican Army,” and that they had carried out her assassination. His websites were his link to an underground army of saboteurs and killers. The two women’s homes were raided, their computers seized, they were questioned, fined, and listed as being official witnesses for future legal proceedings. Then, they were released.
One of the two was identified last September as Yulia Glazova from Tyumen, editor-in-chief of the Vechernie Vedomosti (Evening News) Media Outlet in Yekaterinburg. It is not clear whether she is one of the two who was just given her long-term status in Japan this week.
