A friend of mine from Russia wrote to me today:
- Maybe what I'm about to tell you is revealing. At least I hope that this is not an isolated and even extremely rare case.
I'm standing in line before the store opens. And suddenly a conversation starts between people next to me. I couldn't believe what I was hearing:
It is not at all clear what this war is about. This war is a gross mistake. It doesn't have a single normal goal. It costs us too much. And it is not clear and will not be clear why we need all this. They kill real Russians and not just criminals, but young people. For what? Even in Afghanistan, the guys went to fight, even if under duress, but they thought that they were fulfilling some kind of duty, that they were fighting for a reason. At least that's how it was at first. And now people are dying without knowing why. And they see a completely different truth in Ukraine - completely different from the one on TV. And so in the West they thought badly of Russia and the Russians, now they despise us. The government is lying to us. And we are afraid of it. The same fear as it once was is back. With this difference that then there were laws and now there is lawlessness. Then there was someone to complain to, to write to. Now there is no one!
...
True, there were not many people - a dozen people. But they were saying all this out loud! And no one argued with what was said, no one defended the war. Nobody! If I hadn't witnessed what happened, I wouldn't have believed it was happening. I couldn't stand it, so I also spoke out. I said that for me from the very beginning this was an idiotic and insane war! When I got home, only then did I startle myself - why did I have to intervene in the conversation?! And my heart is pounding with anxiety, and I'm glad I said those words anyway. The silence is already coming to the surface. This silence can no longer be endured.
01/25/2023