SUNDAY, MARCH 27 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
war in ukraine
More than 15,000 people have
been arrested since the war start-
ed.
Anastasia, wearing a jacket
with the words “No to War,” was
grabbed by riot police earlier this
month as she walked toward a
small group of protesters in Mos-
cow. She was arrested and fined.
“It makes me really angry,” said
Anastasia, who asked that her
surname not be used for security
reasons. “On top of anger, I feel a
kind of desperation and sadness
and regret, specifically a regret
that there is nothing good in the
future any more.”
Cars carrying imperial flags
and bearing the letter Z, a symbol
of support for the war, have ap-
peared in Russian cities and
towns.
“It’s hard to believe that these
people are real and that they
actually believe that this military
operation is a way to save Russia,
because none of this is going to
bring any good,” she said.
Kirill Martynov, political edi-
tor of Novaya Gazeta, was de-
nounced as a traitor and dis-
missed recently by two univer-
sities where he taught two philos-
ophy courses. A parent had heard
him tell students that civilians
were being killed in Ukraine.
Martynov, who later left Rus-
sia, fears the purges are just
getting started, amid deepening
social tensions over the war.
“Russian authorities and peo-
ple who support the war need to
find someone who is guilty, be-
cause when society and the econ-
omy is collapsing, you have to
find some enemy to take respon-
sibility,” he said.
“There will be a kind of hunt
for traitors in the next months
and we’ll see a lot of criminal
prosecutions, because they need
some explanation of what is hap-
pening in Russia and, if Russia is
so great and Putin is such a wise
person, why is life in Russia so
bad now,” he added.
But there is a thread of messi-
anic rhetoric from top Russian
officials, pro-Kremlin journalists,
religious figures and academics,
laying out the mission to revive
Russian greatness. They revile
Western liberalism and applaud
conservative, authoritarian or-
thodoxy.
A prominently featured article
on state-owned RIA Novosti news
site by conservative commenta-
tor Pyotr Akopov bore the head-
line, “Russia of the future: For-
ward to the USSR.” He wrote that
“the spirit of Russian history, the
spirit of our ancestors gives us a
chance not just to atone for the
collapse of the Soviet Union. It
gives us a chance to fix it through
creation, through the rebirth of
the great Russia.”
Calling for new Russocentric
thinking, he argued that Russian
intellectuals and oligarchs were
mental slaves of the West, who
wanted to copy it and reform
Russia.
“What does this mean?” tweet-
ed historian Ian Garner, who
specializes in the study of Rus-
sian propaganda. “In sum: a root-
ing out of anyone accused of
being ‘un-Russian’ in thinking or
culture.”
Olga Irisova, editor in chief of
independent media outlet Rid-
dle, said that Putin’s call for
Russia’s self-purification marked
an ominous turning point, mak-
ing it dangerous to oppose the
war. (Irisova is outside Russia,
and the Riddle website is still
operating.)
“Even my acquaintances who
are still in Russia are scared to
speak out now,” Irisova said.
“They’re scared even to talk to
people about the war because
they believe that other people
might report them to the authori-
ties or just might call them trai-
tors.”
Irisova said the marking of
“traitors” on activists’ doors rein-
forced the government’s message.
“If you do not agree with us, you
are a minority,” she said. “You
should stay silent. And people are
afraid.” Thousands would emi-
grate, but most would not be able
to leave.
“I don’t see any positive sce-
nario for Russia,” she added. “I
see more repressions.”
But one protester, Valetin Be-
layev, sees a sliver of hope from
his home in Kazan, 510 miles east
of Moscow. “Now Russia is at a
crossroads,” he said. “Either we
will sink into the abyss of a
hopeless nightmare, or we will be
able to avoid this scenario.”
“We’re at a point where history
could go in completely different
directions,” he continued, “and all
of us now have a personal respon-
sibility for what the future of our
country and the world will be
like.”
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
ABOVE: State television
producer Marina Ovsyannikova
feared jail time for holding up
an antiwar poster during a
news broadcast earlier this
month. But on Friday, she was
charged with a misdemeanor
offense of discrediting the
military.
LEFT: A severed pig’s head and
an antisemitic slogan were left
at the door of Alexei
Venediktov, editor in chief of
the l iberal radio station Echo of
Moscow, which was forced to
close earlier this month.
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