#FreeSpirit formerly served in the #GRU ( #Russia Military Intelligence). My translation of his 1st #MoscowDiaries he sent me, dated May 13th. The source has been vetted & authenticated.

This content is important for our understanding of the realities facing Russian society so that we can arm ourselves against #Kremlin disinformation & most importantly so that we can effectively deal with #Putin. Please share far & wide. Let's roll:

“Igor, hello.
Almost by accident I came across your tweet and #FSBletters. I was wondering how aware the people are abroad and what the reaction to the #WindofChange publications of the http://Gulagu.net  project has been.

Fact is, almost from the very beginning of the war, as far as I can tell, the international community has been convinced of the near complete and unconditional support (about 80%) of the majority of Russians for both the war itself and for President #Putin.

This leads to various consequences, from negative stereotypes towards the Russian population in general, to the policy of abolishing Russian culture.

But most importantly, at this point, it leads to erroneous conclusions by the global community who are helping Ukraine to fight an entire aggressor nation.

In reality, this is not the case, there is much less support, at all levels and in a variety of structures, including among the security services.

There is a lot of fear, fear of falling out of the ranks, conformism, outright stupidity and shortsightedness, a herd mentality, and sometimes a cynical expectation of getting the upper hand on someone else.

All of this, no matter how far removed from high moral principles it may sometimes be, has nothing to do with the kind of conscious support attributed to it by various foreign media outlets.

It seems to me that an understanding on the part of the international community of what is really going on both in Russian society as a whole and in particular, in the social circles of security services,

may enable the West to take a tougher stance toward the current authorities in Russia (especially with respect to the so-called "war party") and to debunk the myth created by Russian propaganda inside the country about the all-powerfulness of the regime.

I am convinced that without active support from the rest of the world, Russian society has little chance of both changing the current leadership of the country and changing the very structure of governance.

An obvious example is #Belarus, where the civil protests seemed to have almost led to a coup, but the final result is worse than zero - the opposition, which had a huge number of supporters at the time of the presidential election, is now virtually crushed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%80%932021_Belarusian_protests

I have certain observations and information about the state of affairs and sentiments in society, which I would like to share with you. To publish this information or not is your choice and solely your decision, but I am grateful in advance.

A Silent Pluralism of Opinions

The external, outside impression of the attitudes of Russian society, created by the pro-government media and the belligerent, loud barking of a small part of society encouraged by them, has nothing to do with the everyday reality of Russians.

Unfortunately, no opinion polls will create an adequate picture, because on the one hand, the threat of repressions stifles not only the voices of opponents of war, but the very desire to protest and even to get actively involved in studying the topic;

on the other hand, most of those who voice support for the president or the special operation answer the question in hypothetical terms, without feeling any connection between real life and their statements. Couch troops, #CouchImperialism, couch support for the president.

All this until it's time to get off your ass and sacrifice something in the name of your alleged beliefs.
Most of the people with imperial ambitions are not ready to sacrifice anything – they want to conquer the world from the couch.

To understand and experience the above, you only have to look at people outside of social media and mass Z-events.
For the past month, I used public transit while wearing an antiwar symbol visible from afar, instantly identifiable.

There was an active reaction, but only in support: almost every day someone shook my hand, gave me a thumbs-up, or told me I was good.

The passive reaction was mostly seen in the eyes, sometimes with interest, sometimes with derision, but the vast majority diligently averted their eyes.

Guided by the psychology of the ostrich, people bury their heads in the sand and do their best to pretend that nothing is happening, that there is no war, no Iron Curtain, and no extermination of the remaining semblance of a democratic civil society.

Ignoring the reality on the ground level, that it is all somewhere far away, on television and the Internet, and that on the domestic route home-work-home there are only familiar problems of everyday life.

For all that, not a single person in a whole month expressed or gestured negativity toward the symbol that I wore.

There are very few war symbols - the letters Z and V - on cars and almost none on people. Even the St. George's ribbons, which in previous years, especially on the eve of May 9, were worn by every other person, or tied to the car mirror or the antenna, were rather rare this year.

Friends, close relatives, and colleagues in my own and related units are well aware of my open antiwar stance.

At work, despite the fact that the organization is, shall we say, near-state and closely connected with the state structures, the staff members whom I know personally are either silent or are silently opposed to the war,

allowing themselves to speak caustically about the so-called special operation only in private conversations or in closed circles.

For the most part, friends and relatives try to psychologically distance themselves from what is happening, and some deliberately do not even watch or read the news. Some have already left Russia.

Several times I’ve had inner dialogue that I risk everything for nothing, that there will always be wars, and that I won't be able to change anything.

This, by the way, is a very typical view of the overwhelming majority of those around me: that there is no chance to change anything in the current situation.

It is not only a matter of fear of being arrested or beaten up, but also of a feeling that protest activity itself has no future.

The mechanisms that work in a normal democratic society, where people taking to the streets is an obvious signal to the authorities that they need to change course because of the growing risk of losing the next election, do not work at all in the current reality in Russia.

The authorities can afford to ignore civil protest. Khabarovsk is a case in point: for several months, tens of thousands of people went out into the streets almost every day to protest the arrest of the governor. The real final effect was nil. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53373132

Moreover, as soon as the protests started to dry up, arrests and harassment of the most active participants began. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%80%932021_Khabarovsk_Krai_protests

An unfounded belief in one's own powerlessness and the illusion of the ephemeral possibility of catastrophic consequences of war for each individual citizen

encourages people to focus on their small lives in the tight bubble of security of the policy of non-interference in politics.”

(END OF TRANSLATION of the 1st of the #MoscowDiaries from #FreeSpirit, dated May 13th.)