@amaitte-42 if you would like an example of what I am talking about, I am happy to oblige

Some relevant context: the person in question they are defending has made films funded by Russian government, has ties to Vladislav Surkov, who is considered a mastermind of Russian policy re:Ukraine, and he has recently used his voice on the Cannes festival as an opportunity to call for lifting the sanctions off russian oligharks who have close ties to the Kremlin

This is just one example of many times when Russian association with "great culture" and the effort modern Russian immigrants have made to self-victimise has been used against Ukrainians. Ukrainians who often communicate with westerners will all tell you the same thing: the association with "great culture ballet tolstoevsky" regularly prevents foreginers from accepting the reality that russia commits the war crimes that we have an excess of evidence of. And, at the same time, russian culture is perceived as "cancelled" (somehow, despite this, ru book keep getting republished and featured in the "top 10 best books ever" lists, and russian academics get invited to work abroad on projects associated with Ukraine, where they use their power and influence to spread anti-ukrainian propaganda about "one nation" and "poor uwu russians")

After all, to quote Michail Piotrikovsky, director of the biggest Russian museum Ermitage, "our exhibitions abroad are a kind of a special military operation of itself, our great cultural expanse"

That being said, I am using this case as an example of people I do not want to interact with, because, empirically, it is a waste of time. When it comes to influential people, this rhetoric straight up dangerous, but teens with stan accounts are merely annoying. If you think it makes me a "victim of stupid propaganda", I can live with it.

People are much bigger than their sphere of activity 

Here is an example of an adequate priest who, unlike the pope, understands that peace can only be achieved through our victory. Otherwise, all cities in Ukraine will turn into Bucha.

I do not condemn or evaluate people by what profession they have. Actions speak louder than words. And this is exactly the case with lady Yuliia. She gives people a sense of importance and tactility that people without limbs need. But to go and write that she is a whore. It's disgusting and dehumanizing.

Don't be rude to a nice person. There will be a better world if that is the motto

Russia shelled the Sumy Oblast over the last couple of nights to such an extent that the roads and bridges to some villages and towns near the border are destroyed completely, making the necessary evacuation of the remaining civilians extremely difficult.

Happy Maslenitsa or whatever

Bomb more oil refineries!

Peter Pomerantsev

I absolutely think that Russia is the bad guy here, but you could replace "Russia" with "The United States" and this reads exactly the same way too.

If we're going to be demystifying imperialism, we also need to look a lot closer to home. We've scapegoated Russia as The Great Evil, and don't get me wrong: their war crimes are numerous and they are not the good guy here. But countries in the west are not the good guys either. They are not the unstained shining heroes of True Democracy when they continue to act in imperialist ways abroad.

The United States in particular needs to look at its place on the global field and its constant interventionist strategies - particularly in places like the middle east and literally anywhere south of their own border.

We can't castigate Russia for being imperialist and for engaging in wars, assassinations, and imperialism when we do the same thing.

So yes, we need to be aware fully of what is happening in Russia, but we also need to be aware of how our own actions can be perceived and do the work to make ourselves better too.

Peter Pomerantsev