“I did what I could” / Russians protesting against the war

The Russian government, with its tight control over the national media and its powerful law enforcement machinery, has spared no effort to stifle such dissent and prevent those who oppose the war from spreading their message to the general public.

Radio Free Europe spoke with many of those who have protested across the country to find out why they felt compelled to take this risk and to hear their own stories told by themselves.

Vyacheslav Chernov

Vyacheslav Chernov is a businessman from the town of Tashtarol in the Kemorovo region of Siberia. He has twice been accused of “extremism” for his political activism, while his business has been targeted by local officials.

“This country has 1001 ways to destroy what is dear to you,” he told Radio Free Europe.

He has served an administrative detention period for his anti-war statements, but responded reluctantly when asked if he fears a possible prison sentence.

“Why should I be afraid?” Chernov said. “I am telling the truth. And if I have to suffer – I’m not ashamed to suffer for the truth…. What is the purpose of living in comfort if your conscience is not pure? This is torture, not living. If I lose myself, it would be a bigger disaster for me than losing my freedom. “If the authorities think they can break me by sending me to jail, then let them try.”

Aikhal Ammosov

Aikhal Ammosov is an activist and musician in the eastern Siberian city of Yakutsk who has twice been convicted of “hooliganism” for drawing anti-war graffiti.

He is currently facing criminal charges “for discrediting the armed forces” after writing the slogan “No to war”. He said he was held in solitary confinement for five days after his arrest and threatened with a gun and an electric shock: “They tried to break me, mentally.”

“It’s scary because these accusations against me are being used to silence all those who want peace,” he said.

“They arrest people like me and then everyone in Yakutsk gets scared. We are very far from Moscow and St. Petersburg. We are not protected here…. “There are practically no human rights activists here.”

“I think a lot of people are scared in Yakutsk,” Ammosov said. “They have been terrorizing us since the time of the Soviet Union. Our parents and grandparents were terrified people… If Russia is a dictatorial state, then Yakutia is an ultra-dictatorial city. “Here you can remain crippled forever if you have a different opinion from the ‘official’ one.”

“When the coffins start to be returned, people will understand and when their eyes are opened, they will go out to protest in the streets,” Ammosov said.

“But at the moment, it seems like they want more war, more bloodshed. ‘We will destroy Ukraine and then we will go further…’ People are so involved in this and they are so intolerant of people who think differently ata that they seriously threaten them, persecuting them and saying, ‘I will’ we break their legs and arms’ “.

Ammosov said he had been secretly involved in anti-war activities since Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
“I also resigned pun in order to oppose the war full time,” he said. “They persecuted me for two months, more or less. “I was in hiding, staying in different places every night.”

Maria Ponomarenko

Maria Ponomarenko is a journalist from the town of Barnaul in the Altai region of Siberia. She is currently in custody awaiting trial in St. Petersburg as she faces charges of “discrediting the armed forces” over a social media post about Russian bombing of civilians in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. She risks receiving a sentence of ten years.

She answered written questions from her cell.

“[Lufta] “It’s painful in Ukraine,” she wrote. “A pain in the soul, in the heart, in the mind. When the war started, I felt a deep despair because it seemed impossible to stop this fratricidal madness. I have the right to call it ‘war’…. In the first few weeks, even now, I felt destructive emotions, a sense of guilt. But I did everything I could. I was not silent. I did not give my approval. “Silence in Russia today is tantamount to inciting a crime.”

“A repressive machine is closing our mouths,” Ponomarenko continued. “But even in such conditions, when you can be imprisoned for five or ten years, we find brave people who refuse to bear the burden of participating in the killing of the Ukrainian civilian population. We are fighting, though not much like us. Now a lot depends on the free Russians. “If only five percent of Russians find the courage and determination, change will come.”

Anna Krivonos is a journalist in the far eastern city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. She was fined 30,000 rubles ($ 475) for a March 2 social media post called “Sakhalin Oblast Wants Peace,” urging people to sign her anti-war appeal.

When she wrote that post, she said, she was sure she could convince people that the war in Ukraine was immoral and dangerous.

“I was absolutely convinced of that,” she said, adding: “I thought the people who supported this hell were simply not thinking enough.”

However, over time she has changed her mind.

“During all these months, people could find any information, they could check and see multiple sources,” Krivonos said.

“If they wanted to. If one is supporting what is happening, then this is a conscious choice. We have nothing to talk about anymore. “Recently I was thinking that I was going to the police, to the court and everything for nothing,” she says.

“In fact, even then, in early April, it made no sense,” she added. “The signatures came very slowly. Some people signed up and then asked me to remove their name, saying they had changed their minds. I have many friends, but of all of them, only three sign up. “It was a painful lesson.”

Her trial lasted only a few minutes, Krivonos said, but left an unforgettable impression on her.

“I had very strange sensations,” she recalls. “There was a sense of freedom, absolute security and truth. I used to feel anxiety and fear. But in the courtroom – only freedom. I think the judge, a woman about my age, also had strange feelings. I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and say, ‘You do not have to do this. “You have a choice ‘, because I felt sorry for him too.”

Aleksandr Dneprov

Aleksandr Dneprov is a 33-year-old computer specialist in Naberezhnye Chelny, the second largest city in the Tatarstan region.

He has been the only anti-war protester since April. Unlike the others, he has not been stopped by the police.

“No one is interested in me,” he said.

Asked to describe his feelings on February 24, when Russia launched its unprovoked war in Ukraine, Dneprov said one of them was “shame”.

“I had mixed feelings – shame and disbelief that our president had committed such a monstrous crime,” he said.

“I would not say I was afraid – I was hurt and ashamed in front of the Ukrainian people. “I did not feel like a participant in any political event before,” Dneprov continued.

“But that day I felt that it was no longer possible to be silent. We had to admit we were guilty. Could we have stopped this earlier? It’s a tough question because we did not know it would come down to war. “I never believed that my government could carry out such aggression,” he said.

“This whole story was fabricated by Russia itself and only Russia is to blame,” Dneprov added.

Kamil Churayev

Kamil Churayev is a designer and artist in Ufa, the capital of the Bashkortostan region. He has held only three anti-war protests, but has not been arrested.

“What happened and what is happening is so horrible and significant – and it literally affects each of us – that it would be dishonest to claim that it somehow does not involve you,” Churayev told Radio Free Europe. ” [Protestat] They were a natural reaction, a desire to convey to people that I personally am against what is happening…. What can I do? You can scribble on a piece of paper and stand out [për të protestuar]. “I can do nothing else.”

“My friends from Ukraine write that it is important that they see support from the people in Russia,” he said.

“I consider it my sacred right to name things as they really are,” Churayev said.

“If a war is going on, I will call it a war.”

Ravil Sharafutdinov

Ravil Sharafutdinov is a 29-year-old lawyer from Syzran, a town in the Samara region. He became the first Syzran citizen to be arrested for anti-war protests when he staged a single protest on May 3rd. He was fined 30,000 rubles ($ 475) for “discrediting the armed forces”.

“From the beginning I was categorically against the war,” he told Radio Free Europe.
But only after about 10 weeks of war did he protest publicly.

“I think it became physically difficult to stay silent,” he said. “My conscience was not finding peace. With each passing day, the distinction between black and white became clearer. And, it is not possible to balance between black and white…. You realize that if you want to stay in the light, you have to cross the border and stop doing nothing. “At least that was the case for me.”

In March, he tried to protest.

“I tried to get a banner in the city center,” he recalls. “I stood for a few minutes and realized that I was not ready to be taken to the cell by police van. “I have three small children and a wife.”

He later reasoned that such protests are not illegal.

“I can get a fine or spend a few days in jail,” he said, adding, “but at least I will remain a human being.”

Despite his arrest, Sharafutdinov plans to continue the protest, although he hopes to avoid criminal charges.

“But if it’s a criminal case, so be it,” he said. “I will go to court. “I will defend myself.”

Yevgenia Isayeva

Yevgenia Isayeva is an artist in St. Petersburg. Shortly after the February 24 invasion, she appeared downtown in a white dress, dyed red with blood symbolizing blood. Her protest lasted 10 minutes and she was sentenced to eight days in prison for “hooliganism”.

“My protest… was a kind of experience of freedom for me,” she said. “Since February 24, I could not live normally. I felt bad and for the first time in many years I had panic attacks. But, this gesture helped me. “I felt better.”

“State propaganda tries to convince everyone that people like me have lost their logic,” said Isayeva. “But I have not lost my mind. “I told the police at the station that history would judge us and that this would happen very soon.”

“We are all prisoners of this system,” she added. “But if we just raise our hands, then all this darkness will swallow us, it will sink us. “But there are absolute truths we need to talk about.”

“Now is the best time to act,” Isayeva said, “and not to give up. We need to help each other. “Locking yourself up and feeling guilty, in my opinion, is not productive.” / REL

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