I know Tumblr is less about politics than many other social media, and it will be my first and last post like this. But Tumblr has always been about finding friends and support all over the world, it has always been about raising awareness and speaking your mind. What I want to say is:
Russian people don’t want this war. We hate this war. We hateour president that started this war and the police and security forces and generals and officers who are carrying out his orders.
Ukrainian people have always been close and dear to us, many Russians have relatives and friends in Ukraine. Ukranian people are devoted to their land and to each other, they’re proud of their culture. Ukraine has a right to build its own future as any other country in the world.
We are all horrified and devastated by the fact that our country - the country that suffered so much in the WWII - now has taken the role of the agressor and is invading another free country, mudering its citizens.
- Any protests here aren’t allowed (they weren’t allowed before either). Even when mothers and small chilren come with flowers to the Ukranian Embassy. Even if you simply put a “No War” sticker on your bag. The protesting people are arrested in the streets of many Russian cities, beaten up by the police. The conditions of the confinement are inhuman, they can’t get lawyers for days.
- Right now the government is going to issue a new law which says that spreading“fake”information about the actions of Russian army in Ukraine is considered a crime, and those accused of it get up to 15 years of prison. And since we aren’t even allowed to call this ‘operation’ “a war”, that means any sort of talk, any sort of truth will be considered “fake” and therefore “crime”.
- People working in the industry of culture, science, entertainment and so on who are openly speaking against the war and asking to stop it, are being fired, their shows and concerts are cancelled.
-Independent Media is being closed. All newspapers, channels and radio stations that have been covering the events as they are have been declared “Media acting as foreign agents” like MeduzaorДо///дь and/or simply shut down like Echo of Moscow. Even BBC Russia is expeciencing problems right now! People are reading, people are talking, people can think for themselves, and yet the government thinks they can shut everyone up. Of course, they have means to do it: as the popular political scientist Ekaterina Shulman said: “Putin has enough security forces, and he will find the money for those security forces.”
-Teachers at schools are made to teach students that “Russian army is saving our people in Ukraine”, and other such crap. If they don’t - see the part above. BBC Russia interviewedsome of the many teachers who refused to tell lies to their students, either refusing to raise the topic or telling the truth about the war instead. Some of the teachers even got instructions from their local authorities to ignore the instructions given by the Kremlin.
- Anyway, because of the long-lasting propaganda and the lack of real news, there are still some people who try to defend the so-called “special operation”, but even they can’t shy away from the images of the tragedy caused by our “brave warriors”, and even they can’t deny that this war isn’t something we would want as people or as a country.
With this post I’m not trying to ask you to pity us, we probably don’t deserve it. I’m not even sure that I have a right to write it because I haven’t been in the streets with the protestors. But at least I can speak and I can write, and soon even that might be taken away.
The best I hope to do is to let you know which side we, normal Russian people, are really on. We are want peace.We want friendship.We want progress. We want freedom.
(P.S. Sorry, all the links are in Russian, I had no energy to look for the same articles in English. I’m sure most of you out there have better access to true information than me. And if you’re here and you can read in Russian, it might be useful.)
