Last night I watched a fascinating conversation between Yulia Latynina, a Russian independent journalist who fled Russia, and Alexei Arestovich who is an advisor to Zelensky. I wish they would put English subtitles since it was really revealing.
The issue was about TV Dozhd which is a Russian independent TV station which had relocated to Latvia but Latvia took away their broadcast license when one of the presenters said that he would like to help Russians who are being mobilized and who got fired for that report . The Ukrainians are very skeptical of anything linked to “Russian” and “ TV” although this is an anti-Putin TV station. To the Ukrainians even liberal Russians are looked upon as culpable since they did not manage to topple Putin. To the Ukrainians the issue of free speech and a reporter being fired is insignificant compared to the atrocities the Ukrainian population is suffering from the Russian invasion. In short, the Russinas are looked upon as the Germans were during WWII.
Latynina believes that the issue is much wider than TV Dozhd and goes to the question of the cooperation between anti-Putin Russians and Ukrainians who are fighting for freedom. Alexei Arestovich presented several questions through which he can gauge whether a person is a true ally: Whose is Crimea? Whose is Chechnya and Tatarstan and should Russia be denuclearized? Arestovich believes that an imperial Russia even under a liberal regime would still be a threat to Ukraine and the rest of the world since a switch to a dictatorship may occur in a second. Latynina supports the denuclearization of Russia and for enabling the areas which compose the Russian Federation to decide whether they want to stay within the RF.
