The New York Times: They are in exile, but ready to save Russia

“My true crime was that in March 2014 I was the only dissident when the State Duma voted to approve the annexation of Crimea by 445 votes to one,” Ponomarev writes.

“In mid-August, while on a business trip outside of Russia, I discovered that my credit cards were not working. Soon one of the leading Russian newspapers reported that the authorities banned me from traveling abroad and seized my property. I had the equivalent of $21 on me. Since then I have not returned,” writes Ponomarev.

According to Ponomarev, he is one of about 1 million Russians who have left Russia in recent years, not because they do not love their homeland, but because its values ​​and culture have changed radically. “We miss home and relatives, and most of all we miss our compatriots, knowing that they are inquisitive, caring and some of the smartest people in the world,” he adds.

“Russia in 2015 is similar to Germany in 1933. I do not make this comparison lightly. Putin’s promises to revive the Russian economy (despite oppressive Western sanctions) and “restore” our national dignity can only be kept through further conquest and bloodshed. Part of the blame lies with the West: at the end of the Cold War, it repeated the Versailles mistakes of 1919, imposing shock capitalism on Russia instead of integrating it into a stable world order,” Ponomarev writes.

So what's now? According to Ponomarev, the main hope lies in the exiles.

“Our concept of Russia’s future is simple, but goes beyond the noble (yet doomed) opposition mantra of calls for fair elections,” Ponomarev writes. He lists: a smaller and more accountable central government, an independent and modern judiciary, “transferring the lion's share of tax revenues to self-governing regional and local communities,” and the emancipation of entrepreneurship and competition.

People who are the bearers of change are waiting in the wings “from London to Silicon Valley and Putin’s prisons,” Ponomarev writes. He mentions the names of Pavel Durov, Leonard Blavatnik, Alexei Navalny and Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

“They all care about Russia and have global concepts; they are ready to adopt all the best that the West has for the benefit of their homeland. Is it better to stay and fight from a prison cell, or to push for change through outside pressure? I struggle with this question every day. But I know that the future of Russia requires a new “start-up generation” that will return our country to its previous place,” the author concludes.