I am shocked, depressed and ashamed of what is happening now in Ukraine.
Almost all Russians have friends or relatives in Ukraine, from Ukraine. We lived in friendship and peace for almost 400 years. We are close in spirit and culture. We've been through a lot together.
And now, in 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine. We attacked our neighbors, friends and relatives, for no reason, just like that! This is madness. How did it become possible?
All people in Russia and Ukraine know expressions "I am a small person", "my house is on the edge", that means I can do nothing. As a result of the USSR collapse, good people first tried to survive, and then in the 2000-2020 tried to stay away from the political dirt that greedily squelched on the ruins of the union, people tried to equip their small worlds, their personal life and were glad that life was gradually getting better. "We are out of politics" - we said and thought, and that was a mistake.
None of us could imagine that Russia could attack Ukraine, it seemed unthinkable!
The military junta, headed by Vladimir Putin, betrayed Russian people, betrayed because power is the trust of the People, and by starting the war, the Russian government betrayed this trust. Now there is a war going on not only with the Ukrainian people, not only with the whole world, there is a war going on with all People of Russia. This war is a crime, a war crime that is being committed on behalf of all Russians, on my behalf, on your behalf, on behalf of each of us and against each of us! It's happening today! It's happening now!
To betray and commit military crimes is bad, and I am against Vladimir Putin making me an accomplice in what he is doing.
I am a citizen of Russia, I have a Russian passport, the fate of my Motherland is important to me as well as the fate of Ukraine, because these are the fates of my relatives, friends, dozens of good people who I know and millions of good people who I don't know. No one asked my opinion before the start of the war, and the only one way not to be an accomplice in this crime, this shame, is to say what I think about it. To remain silent today means to support the criminals who are sitting in the Kremlin.
Criminal Russian government can issue a decree, a thousand decrees, forbidding the People of Russia to know, speak, think and act. They want us to be silent, they understand - while we are silent - we are complicit in their crimes. Our silence is their strength.
Well, I lay claim to my right to freely and publicly express my opinion:
- The war with Ukraine, with the peoples of Ukraine must be stopped immediately.
- The Russian government must resign.
- War criminals who ordered the treacherous attack must be convicted.
- Russia must compensate Ukraine for all material losses incurred during the war. We are unable to resurrect the dead, and I mourn for this.
This is a crime, not mine, not Russians' people! This is a crime against us, against all Russian people, against the People of Ukraine and against the whole world. And therefore, all Russian People must finally tell the truth, call the traitor and war criminal Vladimir Putin as a rat and a war criminal, and to do with him as people should do with war criminals. Period.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" (Edmund Burke 1729-1797)