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Dear Fellow Russians, It’s Not Just Putin — It’s Us
Ukrainians would have never attacked Russia.
It’s now more than a month since the war started. Some people are getting used to the idea, while many Russians have fled the country and find solace in pretending as if the horrors imposed by their government have nothing to do with them.
“Discrimination of Russians is so unfair. We are not to blame. We’re not attacking.”
“Ukraine is not that special, you know. People die every day.”
“How do you know that this news is true?! Do you have any way to prove that these deaths are real?”
I see versions of this on Instagram and Twitter from “ordinary Russians” — whatever that means — every day. This is a message to those people.
Putin may have ordered the invasion. It may have been his idea, coming from a false view of history and obsessive imperial ambitions. He may be a tyrant, sociopath, thug, and greedy criminal; someone who values human life as next to nothing; who believes that force is the way to show strength and avoiding it is a sign of weakness. But Putin never ordered soldiers to rape Ukrainian women. He never ordered soldiers to enter civilians’ homes and send a bullet in their foreheads “for fun.” It was the soldiers’ personal choice. Similarly…
