A lone demonstrator in St. Petersburg, Russia holds a sign “Happy Birthday, Nadezhda” to support the Ukrainian military pilot Nadiya Savchenko abducted and imprisoned on false charges by Putin’s regime. Please note the policeman on the left, he is taking notes. Although single-person demonstrations in Russia are not illegal and do not require to be “approved” in advance, Russian police collect personal information on demonstrators protesting Kremlin policies in an attempt to intimidate and silence them. The police also add their names to police and state security databases for so-called “unreliable” persons (i.e. opponents of the regime) to “monitor” them. The bravery of this Russian man and people like him is enormous. There are not many of them. They dare to be free in Orwell’s “1984” brought to life in Russia by Putin.
“Jaw casts fill potholes in Siberia” and other neglected Russian stories
Edited by: A. N. The flood of news stories from a country as large, diverse and strange as…