Fmr. Member of Russian Parliament Fights for Ukraine

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Ilya, what about — I mean, it is odd that a Russian — not just a Russian, a Russian parliamentary member would come over here in the — I mean, I know you have been living here for a while. But how did it — how did it — how did you get the Ukrainian military to accept you in their ranks? And are there any other Russians that you know of anywhere around where you are fighting as well for this side, Ukraine?

ILYA PONOMAREV, FORMER RUSSIAN DUMA MEMBER: Not where I am. But, in general, there are numerous Russians in Ukraine fighting. There were numerous Russians who were coming to join Ukrainian military in volunteer groups back in 2014. I believe there are several thousand of them. There is one regiment which I know next to Kyiv which is fighting on the Ukrainian side against the invaders. But the question is very simple. We think that the key to freedom in Russia right now is in Ukraine. If we are victorious here, if we will defeat Putin here, we will win Russia. That’s very much like German anti-fascists were doing back in World War II. You know that the counselor Willy Brandt, for example, the leader of German Social Democrats, he was fighting within the allied armies in Norway against German fascists. And that’s not because he was anti-German. And I am not anti-Russian. I am pro-Russian. But I am anti-Putin. And we will kill the bastard.

AMANPOUR: Well, you have written recently that you don’t think he will be — quote, unquote — “on this planet” in another year. But it is fascinating what you say, because you’re fighting for your own country, to liberate your own country via Ukraine. That’s obviously the one thing that Putin really fears. one of the reasons many Russians and other analysts says that he just doesn’t want Ukraine to be free and democratic and independent is because then ordinary Russians will start asking why it’s not OK for them also to be free and democratic. Do you get that sense? And is that where we are in your country, in Russia?

PONOMAREV: I think so. Ukraine is very much the (INAUDIBLE) stand-in for Mr. Putin. And his propaganda, all the way down, he was portraying Ukraine as a failed state,because he was saying, ah, you see, Ukrainians have made their revolution, and they are failing. And you shouldn’t do the revolution here in Russia, because you will fail as Ukrainians did. But we are not failing.