In divided Russia, ‘compassion has become civil resistance’ 

MOSCOW – Malika broke down in tears as she laid flowers at the feet of a statue of a Ukrainian poet in the center of the Russian capital.

In addition to his grief – this act was a commemoration of the victims Russian missile attack He also had two reasons to feel uneasy – on the Ukrainian city of Dnieper.

First there was the flashing blue light of a police car parked a few meters away. In Russia, any expression of sympathy for Ukraine can be regarded as defaming the Russian Armed Forces, and in the days before Malika’s visit, several people were arrested.

“I despise them,” she said of the officers marching around the monument.

The second reason for his concern was his fellow Muscovites passing by. “Somebody can hear me playing O’Kane and inform the authorities,” he said playing through his headphones, referring to the Ukrainian rock band whose music has become the unofficial soundtrack of those protesting the war.

According to Russian media, police were first alerted to the makeshift monument by nationalist cow vigilantes.

Malika said, “This is the country we live in now.” “I see these people around me who go about their lives as if nothing is happening, and I am horrified.”

Even Malika’s ex-husband, with whom she has a son, is “on the other side of the divide” when it comes to his views on the war.

of Russian President Vladimir Putin attack on ukraine Have isolated our country from the western world. It has also created a rift within Russian society, pitting countrymen against each other and locking them in more information bubbles than ever before.

Although the accuracy of polling in Russia is often questioned, poll results – whether independent, state-financed or secret polls leaked by the Kremlin – all suggest that the majority of the Russian population supports the war, or at least ready to accept it. as a fact of life.

From exile, independent Russian-language media continue to produce important news, taking advantage of platforms such as YouTube and Telegram. Although they claim to primarily cater to people living inside Russia, they acknowledge that in doing so they are mostly trying to retain their old audience.

Expanding that audience for pro-Kremlin Russians is a difficult task: just as opposition-leaning Russians avoid state television, those who support the Kremlin use state-funded media as their main source of news. consume, or follow a selection of pro-war channels. social media.

In real life, however, the bubbles overlap. Fault lines run through families, friends and workplaces.

For decades, director Dimitri, 45, who opposed the war, would gather with his longtime friends at Christmas time. He was not invited to the reunion this year. “They know how I feel, so in their own way they were trying to avoid an uncomfortable situation,” he said.

Similarly, a young female designer, who asked to remain anonymous, cut off contact with her mother for months because the latter kept sending her links to pro-war YouTube videos.

“My family is like a microcosm of the whole of Russia and I don’t know how to live with it,” she said. “There is a complete lack of understanding between us, as if we are from different planets.”

For Russian officials, the social divide is a cause for celebration, the result of their years of concerted effort to marginalize opposition sentiment.

On Thursday, the Kremlin labeled Meduza, by far the most-read independent news outlet among young Russians, an “undesirable organization”. Russians sharing a link to an article now risk fines or even criminal prosecution.

Nevertheless, there is still room for isolated acts of protest, as long as they stay within strict parameters.

In recent weeks, makeshift memorials such as the statue for the victims of the attack on the Dnipro in Moscow, which killed at least 46 civilians, have popped up in cities across Russia. Those who bring flowers or toys like Malika are largely left alone.

But as soon as the emotion is channeled into words, allowing onlookers to catch the message and perhaps become involved, the authorities move on.

A video widely circulated on social media shows a young woman named Yekaterina Varenik being detained by police after placing a handwritten sign on a Moscow monument. Before she was sent away, she was allowed to deposit a red carnation on the statue, but not the icon.

In the video, a police officer can be heard repeating the words on the sign into his phone – “Ukrainians are not our enemies, but our brothers” – presumably informing his superiors on the other end of the line.

A Moscow court later sentenced Varenik to 12 days in prison and a fine.

Andrei Kolesnikov, a political analyst whom authorities have dubbed a “foreign agent”, said Varenik’s fate is illustrative of the situation in Russia today.

“In the context of war and at risk of prosecution, the simple expression of compassion has become an act of civil resistance,” he said.