I saw this video clip in my friend’s blog, and I agree with her that more people should see it. It has English subtitles, which I can confirm is accurate. I wish I could say it’s a fake, but it isn’t.
Tag: russia
No Title…
My friend from Saint Petersburg told me this horror story. She was talking to her friend in Germany on her landline (there is some huge discount on landline calls from Germany, as she explained). Since it was almost free for her friend, they talked for a long time – over forty minutes. While they were still talking, she heard the buzzer from downstairs: Open, police!
Frightened, she buzzed them in, and two policemen in full gear entered her apartment. They asked her whom she was talking to, and whether she was sure it was her friend, not a scummer, and what city she was calling from. They said that they “wanted to protect her” from possible scum(?!). All looked like they came to arrest my friend, and it took her a while to talk them into leaving her alone.
Later, she started to question her other friends, and it turned out that others had similar situations (all conversations were on landlines and calls coming from Germany).
I don’t know what else to add…
***
Last week, Boris was in Barcelona for his conference, and sure, there were many conversations about the war, about Russia, the world, aid for Ukraine, and all related. Since this conference was very European and initially Eastern European, the conversations were deep and serious, not like the casual conversation with “preset” opinions we (unfortunately) often have here in the US.
One thing that surprised me was that people asked him, “Why does Putin keep fighting despite massive manpower losses?” Naturally, Boris answered, “Because, at least for the past thousand years, Russia never counted men’s losses when fighting.” I was still surprised that those who asked didn’t know the answer as if Russia ever gave any reason to doubt it. Still, they asked why people in Russia do not protest when the losses are so massive and why they don’t protest in general.
Again, I could at least partially understand such questions at the beginning of the war, but I am surprised people are still asking them.
Also, when replying to somebody about a “peaceful solution,” Boris cited our friend with whom we had this discussion in Berlin last fall: If not for Ukraine, Russian tanks would already be in Berlin. Not in Estonia. In Berlin.
The positive thing is that in Europe, the war didn’t move to the background…
Anti-Putin Rally
I am sure that Igor will post about today’s event in more detail, but I still want to post a couple of his pictures. He reports that the meeting went really well, and the participants were especially ecstatic seeing Putin jailed.
Come To Anti-Putin Rally On August 20!
Details of the event are here.
Also, i wanted to make a copy of Igor’s Instagram post:
I couldn’t agree more with what Igor is saying. I can’t stress enough how critical it is to continue to oppose the war, to say no to Putin.
I think about it a lot recently – people tend to forget that the war is going on. Too many people reverse to “We should end this war – somehow,” not understanding that nothing had changed – it is still the same war, people are dying, and a big portion of Ukraine is occupied. It can’t be ended because “everybody is tired.” And it can’t be peace “at all cost.”
Today, I finished listening to Mikhail Zygar’s War and Punishment – such an awesome book! I picked it after I heard a short interview with Zygar on NPR. I was immediately taken by the way he spoke: clear, to the point, talking about his guilt in what was happening. And that’s how the whole book goes. I was reading about the events which happened “on my watch,” and I was horrified at how ignorant I was, how I was not following the events, and how I didn’t take the time to analyze the root causes of events.
War And Punishment
Yesterday, I listened to Michail Zygar interview on WEZ, where he talked about his new book War and Punishment. OMG, he is brilliant!!! Unfortunately, they do not have this interview as a separate episode on their website, so I can’t embed it here, but it was so good! So to the point!
And it turned out that although the book is currently unavailable on Kindle and is back ordered as a hardcover, it is available as an audiobook! I am going to start listening right away!
Mom’s Updates
Last Friday, I tried to initiate two processes: issuing Mom’s US passport and updating her Social Security information so that she could receive a new card and apply for benefits. I knew that we needed to present the original of her Citizenship certificate. Still, unfortunately, I completely forgot that when you apply for a US passport for the first time, you must mail the original certificate.
So, although the SS office has the information that mom’s status changed, they can’t update the documentation before her certificate is returned. On the one hand, I regret that I didn’t think about it in advance. On the other hand, last Friday afternoon was the only time I could address some of these urgent things, and I took the last slot for the passport appointment. If I would skip the passport, the next time I could take my mom there would be in mid-August, and her desire to be able to travel is strong, although entirely irrational. So I didn’t have much choice.
Also, I am not sure I would have time to go to the next round of appointments with her if we had the SS information updates. So let’s say that everything happens for a reason.
The Russian bank saga continues. After I yelled at my mom that she had to call the Russian bank (and Boris transferred money to her phone), she pulled herself together and did call (although she called from Skype, thereby, she could not be identified by the phone number). They took down her information, but she didn’t know her secret word, and they told her she needed to come in person (!!!).
Fortunately, a good friend of mine has the authorization to perform everything that can be done with Mom’s accounts and receive her new bank cards. She went to the bank branch today, but the results were mixed. Although it is clear that there were no fraudulent actions, they refused to unblock this card and insisted it has to be reissued. The online access is still blocked even though they said they unblocked it.
My friend is going to the bank branch again tomorrow, so help her God!
Russian Embassy In Tallinn
What’s In The People’s Heads?!
Boris went to Saint Petersburg for a couple of days: one more attempt to fetch his money (unsuccessful), officially closing all relationships with all Russian academic institutions, and some other stuff. When he called me, I asked him sarcastically how it feels to be in the rear of the enemy; he replied very seriously: the worst thing is that they don’t understand that they are enemies!
I think he is getting this kind of shock each time he goes there, and each time I am shocked when I hear these reports from him: for the vast majority of Russian, “nothing is happening; life goes on.”
We both heard it many times, but it still feels too absurd to accept: people are crying about “unprovoked terrorist attacks on peaceful Russian citizens,” and they “do not know” about airstrikes in Kyiv. Because they do not want to know. Because they repeat the same propaganda cap that “Russia only strikes military structures.” They “do not know”; they do not want to know about children dying. Yes, there are no reports about that in the official Russian news, but everybody has VPN to do Instagram ad Facebook, so people choose not to check the alternative sources; they choose not to know… And not just the older generation (Igor sadly reports this state of mind after each conversation with his grandfather), but the younger one. Undergrads. PhD students. We should have accepted that a long time ago, but it still strikes…
Russian dissidents attend the February 24, 2023 Ukrainian rally
The video about the Russian dissidents, most of whom recent arrivals, attending the February 24 rally at Chicago’s iconic Saints Volodymyr & Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church. The original version of the video has been up for a while, but writing the English subtitles and getting it uploaded took a while longer.
And, as a bit of a bonus, the subtitled version of the video Chicago dissidents put together about the rallies that took place across the world on February 24-25, including the February 25 Chicago rally.
(Because of some of the Discourse taking place in the dissident groups, I want to point out that when I say “Russian” I mean citizens of the Russian Federation. Russia is a multi-ethnic country, which over a 100 ethnic groups calling the county home – but while Russian language has separate words for Russian citizens and ethnic Russians specifically, that distinction gets lost in English).
Hettie's Reflections 