On 31 March 2026, newly elected Congress President Gunn Marit Helgesen, President of the Chamber of Local Authorities Konstantinos Koukas (Greece, EPP/CCE) and President of the Chamber of Regions Cecilia Dalman Eek (Sweden, SOC/G/PD) met representatives of the Russian democratic forces in exile – Ilya Yashin, former Head of the Moscow Krasnoselsky District; Ksenia Fadeeva, former municipal councillor in Tomsk; and Natalia Arno, President of Free Russia Foundation.
Pursuing the dialogue launched in 2025, the new Congress leadership expressed its wish to make proposals to the June meeting of the Congress Bureau to structure the relationship between the Congress and the Russian democratic forces.
In August 2024, then Congress President Marc Cools welcomed the liberation of Ksenia Fadeeva and Ilya Yashin who were freed in a prisoner’s exchange.
Contact: Congress Communication Unit, Tel. +33 (0)3 88 41 38 90
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