Yes, factual in your fantasy world of make believe, in a gumdrop house on lollipop lane.
A year after Putin’s invasion, the award-winning novelist reflects on the silence of his compatriots, the betrayal of his mother tongue, and his hopes for the future
Sun 2 Apr 2023 08.00 BST
My dearest one,
They stole the language from us. We spoke and corresponded with you in the language of great Russian literature. Now, for the whole world, Russian is the language of those who bomb Ukrainian cities and kill children, the language of war criminals, the language of murderers. They will be tried for crimes against humanity. I would like to believe that all those who prepared and participated in this war, who supported it in one way or another, will be put in the dock. But how can one go to trial for a crime against language?
My father went to the front when he was 17 to avenge his brother who was killed by the Germans. After the war, he hated Germans and everything German all his life. I tried to explain to him: “But Dad, there is great German literature! German is a beautiful language!” These words had no effect on him. What will we be able to say after the war to the Ukrainians whose homes were bombed and looted by the Russians, whose families were killed? That the great Russian literature is beautiful? And that the Russian language is so wonderful?
Do dictators and dictatorships breed slave populations or do slave populations breed dictators? Ukraine was able to escape from this hellish circle, to escape from our common, monstrous, bloody past. For this reason it is hated by Russian impostors. A free and democratic Ukraine can serve as an example for the Russian population, which is why it is so important for Putin to destroy you.
In Russia, we had neither de-Stalinisation, nor the Nuremberg trials of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. The result we see: a new dictatorship. A dictatorship, by its very nature, cannot exist without enemies, which means war.
The plans of the general staff included the refusal of Nato to defend you with its armed forces, and Nato fulfilled this plan of Putin in the first days of the war. You Ukrainians did not agree to Putin’s plans. You did not surrender, you did not greet his tanks with flowers. You are not only defending your freedom and human dignity; now you are defending the freedom and human dignity of all humanity. You cannot be defeated because the war is not decided by the number of tanks and missiles, but by the power of love for freedom. You are free men, and those who carry out the criminal orders of the Russian generals are slaves.
A year ago, when Russian tanks were already marching toward Kyiv, the whole world wondered why there were no mass anti-war protests in Russia, why only loners took to the streets. I attributed it to fear. Silence is a Russian survival strategy. Those who protested back then were in jail. This is how Russians have survived by silence for generations. Pushkin formulated this Russian way of life in the last line of his historical drama Boris Godunov: “The people are silent.” And with the beginning of the aggression against Ukraine, the people were “keeping silent”. But then mass mobilisation began in the autumn, and it is no longer possible to explain away the fact that hundreds of thousands of Russians obediently went to kill Ukrainians and be killed. This is something else, something deeper, something scarier.
I see only one explanation: my country has fallen out of time. In the 21st century, the modern man himself is responsible for deciding what is good and what is evil. And if he sees that his country and his people are waging a despicable shameful war, he will be against his country and against his people. But most Russians mentally live in the past, when people associated themselves with their tribe. Our tribe is always right, and the other tribes are our enemies and want to destroy us. We are not responsible, we don’t decide anything, the chief/khan/king decides everything for us. This is how they think: if our enemies, the fascists from Ukraine and Nato, attack our homeland, we go to defend it, just as our grandfathers defended it from the German fascists. The feeling of love for the homeland, the beautiful sense of patriotism, was used by all dictators for their own purposes. My father thought he was defending his homeland from Hitler’s regime, but he was defending the same fascist regime of Stalin. Russians are now going to war, as Putin’s propaganda explained to them, to defend their homeland against “European and American nazism”, and they don’t realise that they are protecting the power of a criminal gang in the Kremlin, which has taken the entire country hostage.
The only way out is to inflict a military defeat on the Putin regime. Therefore, democratic countries must help the Ukrainians with everything they can, and above all with weapons. After the war, the whole world will come to your aid to reconstruct what has been destroyed, and the country will be able to rebuild itself. And Russia will lie in the ruins of economy and in the ruins of consciousness. A new birth of my country is possible only through the complete destruction of the Putin regime. The empire must be amputated from the Russian person, like a malignant cancer. This “hour zero” is vital for Russia. My country will have a future only if it passes through total defeat, as happened with Germany.
Glory to Ukraine!
Mikhail
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Phone and internet use aside Putin would feel right at home on here with the lads who hid under the bed from Covid.
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Was he not out driving round mariupol a week ago? I suppose you shouldn’t take mych at face value these days
Probably one of his doubles.
If he had more than one would they still be doubles? These are important questions
Doppelganger would be the correct term I’d say…
Coming soon to a cinema near you…
They do great social media the Ukrainians.
Be interesting to see how the offensive goes when the ground hardens. Not even Putin can save face if they are pushed back significantly
The new tanks will be something else
A very very brave man.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/10/vladimir-kara-murza-final-statement-court/
Vladimir Kara-Murza delivered these remarks on Monday at the closing session of his trial in Moscow.
MOSCOW CITY COURT — Members of the court: I was sure, after two decades spent in Russian politics, after all that I have seen and experienced, that nothing can surprise me anymore. I must admit that I was wrong. I’ve been surprised by the extent to which my trial, in its secrecy and its contempt for legal norms, has surpassed even the “trials” of Soviet dissidents in the 1960s and ’70s. And that’s not even to mention the harshness of the sentence requested by the prosecution or the talk of “enemies of the state.” In this respect, we’ve gone beyond the 1970s — all the way back to the 1930s. For me, as a historian, this is an occasion for reflection.
At one point during my testimony, the presiding judge reminded me that one of the extenuating circumstances was “remorse for what [the accused] has done.” And although there is little that’s amusing about my present situation, I could not help smiling: The criminal, of course, must repent of his deeds. I’m in jail for my political views. For speaking out against the war in Ukraine. For many years of struggle against Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship. For facilitating the adoption of personal international sanctions under the Magnitsky Act against human rights violators.
Not only do I not repent of any of this, I am proud of it. I am proud that Boris Nemtsov brought me into politics. And I hope that he is not ashamed of me. I subscribe to every word that I have spoken and every word of which I have been accused by this court. I blame myself for only one thing: that over the years of my political activity I have not managed to convince enough of my compatriots and enough politicians in the democratic countries of the danger that the current regime in the Kremlin poses for Russia and for the world. Today this is obvious to everyone, but at a terrible price — the price of war.
In their last statements to the court, defendants usually ask for an acquittal. For a person who has not committed any crimes, acquittal would be the only fair verdict. But I do not ask this court for anything. I know the verdict. I knew it a year ago when I saw people in black uniforms and black masks running after my car in the rearview mirror. Such is the price for speaking up in Russia today.
But I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate. When black will be called black and white will be called white; when at the official level it will be recognized that two times two is still four; when a war will be called a war, and a usurper a usurper; and when those who kindled and unleashed this war, rather than those who tried to stop it, will be recognized as criminals.
This day will come as inevitably as spring follows even the coldest winter. And then our society will open its eyes and be horrified by what terrible crimes were committed on its behalf. From this realization, from this reflection, the long, difficult but vital path toward the recovery and restoration of Russia, its return to the community of civilized countries, will begin.
Even today, even in the darkness surrounding us, even sitting in this cage, I love my country and believe in our people. I believe that we can walk this path.
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Why would Ukraine let it be known that they are going to be carrying out a planned offensive?
Russian morale is so high they’re trying to dampen their spirits
Shur their president is an actor. They’ve staged half the invasion.
So that the fellas just asking questions on twitter can’t try to claim the war is at a stalemate and that the sides should be forced to the negotating table.
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Up to $400m of American money to Ukraine is alleged to have gone missing with up to 35 generals and politicians, including Zelensky, being accused of pocketing money.