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As a Russian, helping Ukrainian refugees is a form of reparation [1]
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Date: 2023-01
I always looked forward to New Year’s Eve in Russia, despite all the consumption and vulgarity associated with the holiday. For some reason, the apparent miracle of changing from one year to the next always won out over rational arguments that the turning of clock hands meant little.
This new year, though, everything was different. Ten months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, you feel either that you’re surrounded by enemies or by the ghosts of departed friends and relatives. Moving into 2023, the main feeling for many in Russia is loneliness.
On the eve of the holidays, I travelled to various cities across Russia, and talked to lots of different people: on trains, in taxis, in shops, at a garage and a government document centre. There was none of the usual holiday excitement. The general mood of depression seemed to affect everyone. Shop assistants didn’t pressure customers to buy. Employers didn’t wish their employees and clients “happiness and love” for the upcoming year, as they usually do.
But many people continue to do important work. Such as helping the millions of Ukrainians who have ended up in Russia as a result of the invasion – something that I’m involved in. Or feeding the homeless. Supporting one another. Defending political prisoners and writing letters to them.
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Tens of thousands of people are doing this work, but they have no representation. Russia’s human rights organisations have disappeared; some were closed down, but most left the country. The opposition’s political leaders – such as Alexey Navalny or Ilya Yashin – are in prison.
Even social welfare organisations are having a hard time: many of their leaders and regular donors are no longer in the country and cannot help in any way. Most of the employees of Russian social and cultural organisations are female now – after the invasion and mobilisation, there are almost no male employees left.
The sense of abandonment is overwhelming.
Anti-war activists targeted
The few people left in Russia who oppose Putin and his actions are under attack. Just before the new year, on 29 December, Russian law enforcement searched the homes of six anti-war activists across the country.
In Moscow, the police went after municipal deputies – local councillors who support the opposition. The apartment of former left-wing municipal deputy Sergey Tsukasov’s 88-year-old mother was searched, as were the homes of democratic socialist and former parliamentary candidate Mikhail Lobanov and former deputy Vladimir Zalishchak. No charges were brought. But Lobanov was beaten during the search, and then sentenced to 15 days in prison for “disobeying the lawful demands of police officers”.
In the city of Tyumen in western Siberia, searches were carried out at the homes of two journalists, Artur Galiyev and Nikita Kiforuk, and at the home of Rezeda Abasheva, former head of the local Alexey Navalny team, in Izhevsk in central Russia.
On the same day, blogger Vladislav Sinitsa, who was convicted of incitement during Moscow’s peaceful election protests in 2019, was put under investigation for expressing his anti-war position from inside prison.
Behind each of these news items are dozens of people in Russia: lawyers and activists who stand outside – and, if they’re lucky, inside – courthouses in support of people on trial. Then there are the support groups, such as volunteer-run advice hotlines for people detained by the police. This is the way Russia’s civic infrastructure has worked for a long time. But now that so many activists have left the country or been effectively gagged, the silence around that work is deafening.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/russia-new-year-ukrainian-refugees-moral-choice/
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