Russian oligarch turned Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky participated in a demonstration on Sunday in Helsinki marking the second anniversary of the war in Ukraine.
"Russian President Vladimir Putin is not the same as Russia and the Russian people," he told demonstrators gathered in Citizen's Square.
He urged Russians to oppose Putin by voting in the March elections. According to Khodorkovsky, more than half of Russians do not support the war in Ukraine.
Speaking to the crowd, Khodorkovsky called the deceased opposition leader Alexei Navalny "an effective politician, of whom there have not been many in Russian history."
"Putin believed that we would be frightened by Navalny's death and fall apart. This did not happen," he said, adding that Navalny's supporters have found their own political representative in his widow, Yulia Navalnaya.
Helsinki police said they estimated that there were about 200 people present at the event.
Yle has learned that Khodorkovsky is set to meet with Speaker of Parliament Jussi Halla-aho (Finns), MEP Heidi Hautala (Green) as well as MP Kimmo Kiljunen (SDP).
The event was organised by the Democratic community of Russian speakers in Finland. During the past two years, the community has staged several protests against the war.
"We have a campaign where Russians around the world protest against the war, Putin, and the administration," the organisation's chair, Irina Vesikko, told Finnish news agency STT.
Khodorkovsky, who has been living in exile since 2013, is one of the Russian president's fiercest critics.
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