February 24 will forever remain a day of shame in Russian history. Even in Russian history, which is rich in shameful dates, this date will stand apart: the unprovoked aggression of an unhinged dictator who, unfortunately, was supported by the majority of the population of our country – we must recognize this. Russia, unfortunately, has been humanized, and the fact that the war has been going on for three years is one of the results. It demonstrates the depth of the defilement of society.
You can argue with this, because there are political prisoners (how many are there, 1300–1400?), you can say how many of them deliberately went to prison, out of principle, like the heroic people Aleksandr Skobov and Alexei Gorinov… But the majority, clearly, simply fell under the locomotive of repression. And in general, the country continues to live and work for the war. And now, when there is a glimmer of hope for improved relations with America, we see that no one is gnawed by doubts, no remorse: “What have we done?” Moreover, the scale of crimes is only increasing: we constantly read about the bombing of Ukrainian peaceful cities and the shooting of prisoners. And this is also done by some people who, it seems, no longer see any limitations that would be an insurmountable barrier for a normal person. This is what concerns Russia.
As for Ukraine, it has demonstrated incredible resilience and courage as a country and as a people, disproving all forecasts. And not only those that were born in the inflamed brains of Kremlin commanders, but also Western forecasts: the CIA, which believed that Kyiv would fall within a few days, was completely disgraced… The war in Ukraine revealed the ephemeral nature of the world order, which we thought had been preserved after 91. We needed real change, we needed to think about a new geopolitical infrastructure, but no one thought about it. America wasted this time: everyone was busy enriching themselves. In the end, America got Donald Trump. Once again. And Trump demonstrated with his hatchet methods that the NATO structure, and in general, the entire Western security system, which everyone was relying on, is ephemeral. There were too many different interests, and there was no readiness to truly confront the aggressor.
And if Ukraine had not stood firm in the first days, if it had not been for the unparalleled courage of all those who fought and the political leadership of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his team, who managed to hold the country together in the first days at obvious risk to their lives, then, of course, the world map would look different now. With thousands of thousands of soldiers’ lives, destroyed cities and villages, millions of refugees, stolen children who are kidnapped on an industrial scale and taken to Russia to be brainwashed and turned into mankurts who do not know their family and homeland – this is the terrible price Ukraine has paid to save a nourished and prosperous Europe.
For the full conversation between Garry Kasparov and Ivan Tyutrin, co-founders of the Free Russia Forum, on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, see our YouTube channel.
