If this is true as reported – and it’s also been reported in NYT along with stories of a few other Russians who’ve experienced similar problems – it is sad and distressing. This is not the Russia I saw when I visited in 2015 and 2017. On those trips, I talked to a range of Russians and no one seemed afraid to say what they thought about politics. And, despite western media distortions, there had been diversity of opinion represented in print media. It appears that has all changed now. – Natylie
By Kelsey Vlamis, Business Insider, 4/9/22
A teacher in Russia said she was fired and fined after being turned into the authorities for comments she made to students about Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Marina Dubrova told The New York Times she showed her eighth-grade class a YouTube video with an anti-war message. Afterwards a group of girls asked her about the war.
Dubrova, an English teacher on the Russian island Sakhalin, told the girls: “Ukraine is a separate country.” One of the girls responded: “No longer.”
Russian police arrived at her school days later, The Times reported, and a recording of her comments, apparently taken by a student, was presented at court.
She was fined $400 for “publicly discrediting” Russian forces and fired by the school for “amoral behavior,” she told The Times. When speaking about Russians in favor of the war, Dubrova said: “It’s as though they’ve all plunged into some kind of madness.”
There have been various reports of Russians turning each other in for speaking out against the war, which Russia calls a “special military operation,” though it’s unclear how widespread an occurrence it is.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last month indicated Russia must undergo a purging of society to root out those who are anti-war or align with the West.
“The collective West is attempting to splinter our society, speculating on military losses, on socioeconomic effects of sanctions, in order to provoke a people’s rebellion in Russia,” Putin said in a video address.
“But any people, the Russian people, especially, are able to distinguish true patriots from bastards and traitors and will spit them out,” he said, referring to people who do not support the Kremlin.
“I am certain that this necessary and natural self-cleansing of society will only strengthen our country, our solidarity, togetherness, and our readiness to answer any calls to action,” he added.
More than 4,300 anti-war demonstrators in Russia had been detained at protests across the country as of early March.
Well the fact that the NYT reported this makes me dubious to begin with. Sakhalin Oblast is an island oblast in the Far East. Did Ms Dubrova talk to the NYT correspondent in Tokyo? IIRC the NYT has closed its office in Moscow. which is only a few thousand miles to the west anyway.
It is possible that the local gov’t went nuts but it seems unlikely. It’s not Texas.
Sad, yes, but not so different from what is going on in the US and its colonized states. Journalists and others who refuse to parrot US propaganda regarding Ukraine are being deplatformed all over the place. I can’t help but wonder what would be the fate of a teacher who spoke against US policy in Ukraine in the classroom.
It should also not be surprising since the US is determined to do regime change in Russia and has made no secret of it. Paranoia was bound to set in as it would if the situation were reversed. In fact, paranoia around anything Russia in the US has been around since the Russian revolution. This all could have been averted had the US Centralized Empire been willing to negotiate a new security agreement for Europe as Russia had requested. But that is not what serves the empire’s interests.
How come she’s in contact with the New York Times? Something fishy about this story.