In 2017, I had a long talk with Vladimir Kara-Murza, the Russian democracy leader. He is now a political prisoner — at IK-7, in Omsk, Siberia. Boris Nemtsov, Kara-Murza’s mentor and friend, is dead (gunned down within sight of the Kremlin). Alexei Navalny is dead. Kara-Murza still lives.
I would like to excerpt my 2017 interview with Kara-Murza, on the subject of patriotism. You often hear that Putin, whatever else he is, is a patriot. He loves his country. He fights for his country.
Of course, he has stolen without surcease from his fellow Russians. He has abolished independent media and civil society. There are more political prisoners in Russia today than there were in the last stage of the Soviet Union. And so on.
This is what I wrote, in 2017:
In America, we’ve had a lot of talk recently about patriotism and nationalism. In Russia recently, there was an amazing conversation in a classroom. On one side were a teacher and a principal; on the other, the students. This was in the city of Bryansk, about 235 miles southwest of Moscow.
From this classroom, a student had been snatched by the police. His offense was to encourage others to participate in an anti-corruption rally.
This was Navalny’s cause: anti-corruption. He and his allies founded an organization, the Anti-Corruption Foundation. It embarrassed Putin and his cronies badly, by reporting the truth about them.
And the student who was snatched from the classroom? His name was, or is, Maxim Losyev. Whatever became of him, I don’t know.
Some more from my 2017 piece:
After the student’s arrest, the principal came in to have a talk with the class, along with the teacher.
And a student recorded the conversation, which was later transcribed and published at Meduza, the Russian news site. (The journalists who work at Meduza operate in Riga, Latvia, so that they can report freely and truthfully on their homeland, Russia. It’s too dangerous to do so at home.)
Yes. To read a transcript of the conversation in the classroom — translated into English — go here. It provides a remarkable window into contemporary Russia.
Further excerpting from my piece:
A student says that “there are videos going around” showing Russian troops in Ukraine. The principal says, “The videos are staged, for starters.” The teacher chimes in, “And you shouldn’t believe them.”
Another student says, “Our TV networks show only what’s good for the government.” The principal, who has evidently had enough, says, “I got it. Somehow, we messed up your civic education. In terms of civics, you’ve got big shortcomings. Do you all mean to tell me that there are no patriots in your class?”
The student says, “And what does it mean to be a patriot? That you support the authorities?”
In our interview, Vladimir Kara-Murza discussed the late Nemtsov, and the great patriotism he had shown — as contrasted with the dictatorship that eventually killed him. And that has now killed Navalny.
Some more from my 2017 piece — related to the students in that classroom in Bryansk:
Kara-Murza points out that young people have never known anything but Putin. He has been in power for 17 years. [Make that 24, now.] Young people find out how people live elsewhere — and ask, “Why can’t we?”
Another paragraph:
What faith do the ruling elite, those great patriots, have in the future of Russia? Kara-Murza says they tend to send their families abroad — “which tells you a lot. They don’t care about Russia or believe in Russia. They treat it as a source of revenue: a source of looting and money-laundering.”
You can see why Putin needs the likes of Kara-Murza, Navalny, and Nemtsov in prison, or dead. You can see why people in the Free World ought to support such men, brave almost beyond belief.