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‘How can I help, here and now?’

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‘How can I help, here and now?’

My piece for Financial Times

Farida Rustamova
Apr 9, 2022
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This week I was honoured to write a diary for Financial Times. There I tell more about myself and what this month of the war was for me. Here's an extract from the article, to read the full story please follow the free link below.

Two weeks before Putin launched his war against Ukraine, I was in Sri Lanka, an inexpensive tourist destination open for Russians during the pandemic. It was our first holiday in a long time. Of course, I couldn’t tear myself away from the news about Russia and Ukraine, even on the shores of the beautiful blue ocean, such a contrast to the madness happening thousands of miles away.

As my anxiety deepened, I kept on asking my acquaintances in government: will there be a war? Everyone answered no: a war wouldn’t be beneficial to anyone. When Putin did send in troops, these people were initially shocked and bewildered. Now many of them believe his assertion that the war was inevitable, and threaten to take revenge on the damned west for its sanctions.

When war broke out, my partner and I surrendered our return tickets to Moscow and found ourselves in the middle of South Asia, not knowing what to do next.

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“The Putin regime does nothing quite so effectively as destroying what others have built, driving its people into the places allotted to them by the regime […] The cell is closed and all that remains is deafening silence” moving, from ⁦@faridaily_⁩
on.ft.comSubscribe to read | Financial TimesNews, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication
9:41 AM ∙ Apr 9, 2022
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13 Comments
John Henshaw
Apr 13, 2022

Very thought provoking and I thank you for your views and ideas : wishing you the very best in this crazy world

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Neckto
Apr 11, 2022·edited Apr 12, 2022

Фарида, здравствуйте. Текст получился сильным и значимым, особенно в смысле Вашей рефлексии собственной национальной идентичности в России и за её пределами, до войны и с её началом.

Но вопрос “How can I help, here and now?” — это вопрос, которым я снедаем изнутри и снаружи (поскольку я, как человек, в своём окружении наиболее сильно погружённый в повестку, беспрестанно слышу его от своих друзей). И я хотел бы попросить Вас подготовить материал, в котором на вопрос «Что следует делать простому среднестатистическому гражданину для приближения падения режима?» будут пытаться по-своему ответить эксперты разных областей (политики, политологи, социологи и пр.). Потому что пока что все материалы, содержащие разговор с экспертом, которые я встречал в наших медиа, никогда не содержали хотя бы попытку этого эксперта определить поле возможного действия для граждан России и предложить что-либо кроме стандартных «митинги, посты, донаты медиа и правозащитникам»...

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