Recovered from the excess of vodka but not from the shock. I was reprimanded for my pessimism. Apparently there is one or even two more “intelligentsia” types in this town of 40 thousand who, if patiently worked on, may see the light and come to the unerstandin of just how morally wrong and practially self-damaging the present course is.
This is the first time someone I personally know got arrested. Oleg Hait was detained and shortly released (no details) for holding a piece of paper with a dove on it. Two days ago heard one of Kandalaksha “intelligentsia” complain of threats “rip off (his) face” for being “against Russia”, and being “against” presently means not being overjoyed about the “incursion” into Ukraine.
Request for monitoring/reviews of local press and internet sources are welcomed. I’m in a good position to observe the moods and attitudes in the rural and small town Russia. Whatever I can contribute to bringing this ugly story out in the open, I will. Not that Russians, in mass, seem to be concerned how they look, or possible isolation, with yet another enemy – and these Ukrainians are experts in the art of hatred, long and intense – added along the country’s borders.
This collection feels authentic: a-s-k-e-t.livejournal.com/108342.html.
http://bljakhin-mukher.livejournal.com/
The blog author’s sympathies are clearly on the “opposition” side but he did a great job digging out sources that give the sense of being there. Renewed every few hours. Languages: Russian or Ukrainian, occasionally English.
They can surely combine fun – or, rather, irony – with tragedy, Gogol style. The police operation to clean up Maidan was indeed named “Boomerang”. No kidding. I checked several sources. First I thought it was a joke.
Still, Kiev is far but Russia is here, and observing local mass media in action is scary. Last time I saw this sort of distortion was in 1980 during events in Poland. Then Afghanistan around 1981. Mass strikes were called “isolated instances of breaking labour discipline” back then.
Apparently big shit is brewing in Ukraine. I heard but disregarded recent news as just too bizarre to be true but here is a link to a summary, in English, of laws passed in the last few days >>