Ilya Yashin Addresses Putin

[Khandro]

Who, do I hear you say? Well while you & I have been getting steamed up about stupid Megan & Harry, there are some very brave people doing extraordinary things. Yashin has just been found guilty in a Russian court on the deeply-questionable charge of ‘spreading false information about the Russian military’. His crime was to raise the allegations of systematic human rights abuses in the Ukrainian town of Bucha on his YouTube channel in April. He will probably get 9 years in some hellish prison.

Affirming that ‘it’s better to spend ten years behind bars as an honest man than to burn silently in shame for the blood being shed by your government,’ he addressed Putin directly:

‘Mr. Putin! As you look at the consequences of this monstrous war, you probably realise what a big mistake you made on 24 February. No one is greeting our army with flowers. We are called invaders and occupiers. Your name is now firmly associated with death and destruction. You have brought terrible misfortune to the Ukrainian people, who will probably never forgive us. But you’re not only at war with the Ukrainians. You’re at war with your own people…You are taking away the Russian people’s home. Hundreds of thousands of Russians are leaving their homeland because they don’t want to kill or be killed. Those people are running from you, Mr. president. Haven’t you noticed that?’

Makes you feel humble?

[Bobbisox1]

Wow, powerful words from a very brave man

[ladybirder]

Amen to that Bobbi.

[sandyRoe]

Eight and a half years for speaking truth to power.
He's a brave man.

[Zacs-Master]

.....on the deeply-questionable charge of ‘telling the truth’.

Brave chap. Let's hope his stand has some impact.

[david small]

A very brave and good man. Therefore he will be persecuted by very cowardly bad men.

[Peter Pedant]

Sinyafsky and Daniel did that in 1964
The tv prog the Beeb did of them who went down for publishing anti soviet propaganda - there is no trace

I think one of them came out after 9 y and said that he had learnt his lesson

[Peter Pedant]

um um
whilst we consider how bad the Russians were compared to us
we tried to do the same to Ponting ( he said the min was lying to Parliament)

In fact jury refused to convict and the law was changed

[youngmafbog]

Unlikely to be ever seen again.

Whilst it is very brave I do think it would be better to skip the country then do it. Although stay away from cups of tea and high rises of course.

[jourdain2]

What a speech.

[ToraToraTora]

Yes very courageous.

[Lie-in King]

A brave man indeed, I wish him a future.

[Khandro]

More here on him here on Medusa. He got 8.5 years for speaking the truth. The USSR used to have a newspaper called 'Pravda' which means Truth & all it did was promote lies; Russia is a very foreign country indeed.

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/12/09/the-court-is-way-too-optimistic-about-putin-s-prospects