An anonymous campaign across Telegram, TikTok, and VK is calling for a "Narva People's Republic" — Narva is an Estonian border city where 87% of residents are ethnic Russians. The rhetoric mirrors the Donetsk and Luhansk playbook almost exactly:
khodorkovsky.substack.com/p/can-russia...
Putin's most powerful weapon in this war isn't the Oreshnik missile.
It is something far cheaper and infinitely more scalable: lies.
Shameless lies literally capture cities — here're some examples: khodorkovsky.substack.com/p/putins-pha...
A Russian soldier today has four ways out: death, crippling injury, capture, or desertion.
That's not a figure of speech. A captain deserted and took his entire division's personnel lists with him. Here's what they show:
khodorkovsky.substack.com/p/how-putin-...
High oil prices are good for Putin — but how good?
I once ran the largest oil company in Russia and I have some thoughts.
Subscribe to my new Substack here (it's free!) —
khodorkovsky.substack.com
Finally on Substack!
Analysis on Russia and the world from me and the @nestcentreorg team.
See the first post and subscribe here: khodorkovsky.substack.com/p/how-the-mi...
Mr. Nobody Against Putin is one of the most important anti-war statements of our time. The Oscar and the BAFTA were both richly deserved.
If you haven't seen it yet, you should! 4/4
This is a phenomenal achievement by Pavel Talankin, David Borenstein, and everyone else involved. I’m proud that one of my foundations supported the film's impact campaign and its awards and festival promotion, helping it reach the widest possible audience. 3/4
Countering propaganda is one of the most important parts of our work, and few films have done more in this fight than 'Mr. Nobody Against Putin.'
Putin’s propaganda is a weapon, perhaps even more dangerous than nuclear arms. It is the fuel driving the war against Ukraine. 2/4
Congratulations to everyone involved in 'Mr. Nobody Against Putin' on winning the Oscar for Best Documentary.
It’s an extraordinarily insightful film that shows exactly how dictatorships sink their claws into institutions and use them to shape everyday life under their rule. 1/4
This is why responsibility without guilt, dignity without permission frightens the Kremlin.
Follow for the continued coverage.
[16/16]
People have varying tolerances for risk. Some will leave their jobs; some will help victims; some will speak out when it is most dangerous. Others will simply refuse to applaud. That alone is enough to cease being part of "the mass."
[15/16]
Not only do I not see collective responsibility as humiliation, I see it as its opposite: a restoration of dignity. It tells a person: you are not merely an object of history; you have a choice—a small, risky, imperfect, but real choice.
[14/16]
The formula was harsh but honest: we are not all criminals, but we all answer for making sure this never happens again. That gave people the right to act rather than make excuses.
[13/16]
After the Second World War, Germany could have been cemented forever in the status of the guilty. But Germany changed — not because it was shamed endlessly, but because a shift occurred inside the country from collective guilt to collective responsibility.
[12/16]
You slammed the brakes but they failed, the person is still hurt, and the consequences do not disappear because your intentions were good. We did not prevent this war, and we will have to reckon with that — even those of us who changed citizenship, or who, like me, spent a decade in prison.
[11/16]
To be clear: responsibility exists even when you tried to prevent the outcome. Thousands of people went to jail and paid a high price for opposing Putin long before the full-scale invasion. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to change the course of history.
[10/16]
Collective guilt turns people from subjects into victims, and a victim has no obligation to act, a victim can only suffer and watch.
For the Kremlin, this is what an ideal citizen looks like.
[9/16]
In that moment, responsibility is replaced by grievance and the question of action becomes a question of identity. The state transforms from the source of catastrophe into the defender against foreign hatred.
[8/16]
This matters because the conversation about collective guilt is extremely convenient for the Kremlin, because it allows them to say "they don't hate us for the war, they hate us for who we are — for being Russian."
[7/16]
Collective responsibility starts from a different question entirely — not "who is guilty?" but "what am I doing about what is being done in my name, what I could not prevent?"
[6/16]
Collective guilt tells a person: you are guilty because you belong to a group, how you acted and what choices you made are of little significance. You are already condemned regardless of what you do, and that is a moral trap.
[5/16]
Now, change the scenario: your brakes fail due to a manufacturing defect. You aren't guilty of a crime or negligence, but the pedestrian is still hurt. The responsibility to address the consequences is yours regardless.
[4/16]
A simple example: if you hit a pedestrian while speeding, you are guilty because you broke the law, and you are responsible for the consequences. Both apply simultaneously.
[3/16]
Guilt and responsibility are two concepts that are constantly, and often intentionally, are treated interchangeably in the context of Putin's illegal war in Ukraine. Let me explain why they are different — and why it is important.
[2/16]
The Kremlin wants Russians to feel guilty about the war — not responsible, but guilty.
There is a critical difference between the two, and Putin exploits it deliberately (Read on 🧵)
[1/16]
She shared a few posts about Bucha with 20 online friends. For that, Putin's court sentenced a 59-year-old woman to 5 years in a penal colony. Her disabled husband, who recently suffered a heart attack, is left with no one to care for him.
This is Natalya Yakimova. She supported Putin's war and helped Russian soldiers. Then a Russian missile killed her adopted son and grandson in Ukraine — and she changed her mind.
The 25-year-old radio station was taken off the air 4 years ago. It was the only station where you could hear open criticism of Putin. Now its frequency is taken by the propagandist Radio Sputnik.
"If Russia's worst enemies wanted to destroy it, they'd do exactly what Putin does" — this is what I said in my last interview with Echo of Moscow in 2022.
