Last year, when the confrontation with the Mirotvorets website started, I hoped that UNICEF, Europe and the UN would not allow this to happen to people. But now... I realise that there is no more European and American media. There is no freedom in these parts of the world. Unfortunately, now it's us and them. And that's the reality. I often hear that Russia is Mordor, but we, they say, are the enlightened Europe. But what are you now? I don't want to describe what is happening there now. It is perfectly clear in the news. I can only say that the fires of burning books and drums loom like ghosts in the squares. Television and propaganda are doing their job.
I will not talk about Ukraine. Everything is clear there. But I can tell you about the countries where I have journalist friends. In the Czech Republic there has been an absolute attack on communists, criminal sanctions are applied for liking or saying that Russia is not the aggressor. My friend Jaromir can no longer tell the truth and is now in danger.
In Italy, many of my friends - Russian and Italian - are threatened simply for covering the news differently and not supporting the war in Donbass that started in 2014. Italian universities are banning the teaching of Russian classics: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, simply because they are Russian. And this in my dear Italy, the same Italy that Russia helped to overcome the coronavirus epidemic. And in the United States they have created a counterpart to Mirotvorets, which includes those in Italy who support Putin.
The West is reverting to the Middle Ages, with its fires of the Inquisition and persecution of undesirables. Can you imagine Russia banning the study of the works of Goethe, Hemingway or Dante? I can't. I'm sorry it happened that way. The enlightened world didn't like the Jews, then the blacks, and now it's the Russians' turn.
The world won't be what it was. There is us and there is them. And you can't just sit back and do nothing.