Make Russia Great Again
Done a WWW search with "anti war protesters in russia", thinking they would like to M.R.G.A. and maybe rid it from
Putin. Excerpts from the two best articles (IMO) explain why anti-war protesters are a dying breed in Russia.
On Sunday, more than 100 prominent Russian activists, authors and academics signed an open letter decrying the
“party of war in the Russian leadership” and state media.
The authors of the letter, which was published on the website of Echo of Moscow, an independent radio station, said they
were alarmed by the Russian military’s activity near the Ukrainian border, as well as Ukraine’s weapons stockpiling.
While not naming or blaming anyone specific in the Russian establishment for pushing for an all-out war, the letter
accuses state-run media of normalizing a belligerent point-of-view in which “war is presented as an acceptable and
inevitable course of events.”
“Russia does not need war with Ukraine or the West,” the letter concludes. “No-one is threatening us, and no-one will
attack us. Politics founded on the advancement of the idea of such a war is amoral, irresponsible, and criminal, and
cannot be carried on in the name of the Russian people.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/3/ukraine-crisis-in-russia-a-quiet-anti-war-movement-is-growing
Anti-war activist Sergei Davidis on why Russian society is reluctant to condemn the threat of war – despite largely
disagreeing with it
First, Russia’s repressive apparatus has tightened the screws on society even further. Both the scale and cruelty of
repressions against protesters and activists have grown.
Second, of course, anti-COVID restrictions [on public gatherings] have played a role. All this has led to the fact that
it has become more difficult for people to go to public actions that put forward any demands.
And then there is another serious reason. In my opinion, people have started treating public protests as a place to
clear their conscience even more than before. That is, people go to the streets [only] because they don’t want to feel
ashamed, not because they expect that the authorities will listen to them! More Russians no longer see any
opportunity to exert real influence on the authorities and therefore do not take to the streets.
Moreover, even minimal communication over the organisation [of a protest] has become difficult. I myself served ten
days in administrative detention in May last year for retweeting a post about a planned [unsanctioned] peaceful protest.
Not a single person in Russia can write ‘let’s hold a protest at this place at this time’ without risking their freedom today.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/sergei-davidis-anti-war-movement-russia/
= new reply since forum marked as read
