“Dear Russian friends: longtime friends, some of yours, others newer and still others whom I don’t know personally, friends in spirit and in soul’, so begins the writer’s long letter Jonathan Littlel published in Il Corriere della Sera. He writes about the ongoing war on Ukrainian territory and addresses citizens living in the shadows directly Putinwho traces the history of Russia from the 1990s to the present day and underlines a crucial point for him: “You have no other choice. If you don’t move, you already know how it’s going to turn out. Now is your time Maidan Square. Be bold and smart, plan your strategy and find a way to execute it.”
No one, he writes, “among you is on the side of Putin and his regime of thieves and fascists, it is true, most of you hate them. But let’s be honest: except for very few those who work for Memorial, Novaya Gazeta, Ekho Moskvy, Meduza, the Navalny organization and a handful of activists how many of you have ever raised a finger against the regime? Except maybe marching through the streets every now and then when a demonstration was organized? So could it be that your feelings of shame and guilt are nothing more than an abstract concept? And remember the past, the 1991 passage that broke thatThe Soviet Union: “There was a time, in the 1990s, when you enjoyed a certain freedom and a touch of democracy: chaotic, safe, sometimes bloody, but true. But 1991 turned out to be a photocopy from 1917. The tyrant can kill millions and yet for some reason he is always the safest choice for you. He continues: “When you were faced with the choice between plundering the country and bringing back the communists, you did not think of fighting for a third option, but you bowed to the crackdowns.”
He begins by describing Putin as “young, brave, aggressive,” a man who “sworn to crush the terrorists and get the country’s economy back on track.” And it tells about the war in Chechnya, which he witnessed: Littell was one of the field volunteers and dedicated his work Chechnya, Year III to the conflict. “Sometimes I tried to tell you about the horrors that I had seen down there, the tortured civilians, the massacred children, the soldiers who brought the bodies of the fallen back to their families for money, and you said to me: ” Jonathan , we are tired of hearing about your Chechnya ». I remember these words clearly. And then I went to everyone furies“. Years later, it was their turn Georgia: “Most of you chose to ignore the conflict or keep your mouth shut.”
Until 2011, when “Russian friends, you finally woke up”. It happened when “Putin once again switched places with MedvedevAs you sat back in the President’s seat, many of you saw another wrongdoing in that step, and you took to the streets to protest. Navalny He made himself known in the country and for six months they filled the streets, shaking the regime and shaking it from its base. Counterdemonstrations and arrests follow. “Some were sentenced to long prison terms. But the rest gave up and went home, recalls Littell, who finally gets around to it Kyiv: “Fountain, Look at the Ukrainians. Look what they did two years after you. They occupied the Piazza Maidan, angry at a proRussian president who had broken his promise to bring them closer to Europe. The police reacted, he recalls, but “instead of running away, the Maidan crowd attacked. There were many casualties, but the Ukrainians won. Yanukovych he was forced to flee and the people have regained democracy, the right to choose their own rulers and send them home if they fail to honor their commitments. Today, more than eight years ago, the Ukrainians are “a frightening example for Putin’s regime: they are demonstrating that it is possible to face him with guns in hand”.
The figure of Putin shines again, Littell writes after the capture of Crimea in 2014: “Suddenly a new myth emerges, and some of you who until then despised Putin and his claque changed your mind and began to worship them him “. But the author warns against this hazards this aboutface: “I’m sure you’re aware that when Putin is done with the Ukrainians and even worse, when he fails to massacre them all, which seems very likely will rage at you“. And then he asks for another, final, awakening: “I turn to you, my friends: those who have had the courage to take to the streets to protest, often one by one, and have only received light sentences for the time being, know that soon they will receive much harsher ones (.. .) Who will he be able to protest for you when there is no one left?” She then presents the possibility of “finally overthrowing this regime.It is likely to take less time than you imagine in the current situation . Think about it. The spark will not come from you. In the economic catastrophe that threatens to overtake Russia, the trigger will come from the provinces, from the smaller towns: When prices rise and wages are no longer paid, everyone those who voted for Putin in these long years because he promised bread and peace, they will take to the streets.Putin knows this and fears the intellectuals and the middle class of Moscow and St. Petersburg: that means you, li just friends”. And he concludes: “Now is the time for your Maidan square. Be bold and smart, plan your strategy and find a way to execute it.”