
Powerful Statement of Resistance from a College Student on Trial in Moscow - gigama
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/a-powerful-statement-of-resistance-from-a-college-student-on-trial-in-moscow
======
lcall
I spent a small part of my life studying Russian language and history, as
other family members have done with other cultures (or lived in them, etc
etc).

And regardless of where else we will agree or disagree, when anyone can
sincerely talk like this young man did about love (meaning caring for others
as much as for oneself) and personal responsibility (actually doing something
about it, all of which I relate closely with honesty and the Golden Rule), I
automatically think: "I would probably like knowing this person, and almost
certainly we could enjoy working together on some worthwhile things."

 _That_ is a political (or whatever) "tribe", as some say, that I would like
to belong to.

~~~
lcall
(fwiw, I have posted more about those thoughts at my simple site:
[http://lukecall.net](http://lukecall.net) . Use of https is on the to-do
list...)

------
tejohnso
"I will endeavor to take joy in having this chance—the chance to be tested in
the name of values I hold dear. In the end, Your Honor, the more frightening
my future, the broader the smile with which I look at it. Thank you.”

Outstanding courage.

~~~
voidmain0001
I would say his courage comes from his conviction that he is right in his
beliefs. There have been many individuals and groups that have endured state
oppression with the same attitude of bliss because of their resolute belief
that what they are doing is right.

------
cmroanirgo
Politicking aside, I wish all the leaders in all the countries of the world
held such ideals as this man.

There's a lot to absorb, but the rising alcohol and domestic abuse due to
despair is something that's increasing in my country too: oz. Mental health
issues are skyrocketing. Our politicians ignore what we ask for, but
propagandize what they think we need based on their corruption, while actively
suppressing liberty. The middle class is almost gone...

... and we're widely regarded as being called the lucky country. By comparison
to many less fortunate others we still are.

Edit: typos

~~~
manicdee
“The lucky country” refers to how we have managed to make it this far for a
nation whose economy is primary production and debt.

The term was originally intended as a criticism not a compliment.

~~~
hnick
It is far more. It is an indictment of Australia as an incurious (yet hardy)
nation run by incurious people. It still adequately captures the state of our
modern leadership.

"Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its
luck. It lives on other people's ideas, and, although its ordinary people are
adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the
events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise."[1]

Edit: Also as an aside, the quote originally didn't have anything to do with
resources, though in modern times it makes sense to make that link.

"When I invented the phrase in 1964 to describe Australia, I said: 'Australia
is a lucky country run by second rate people who share its luck.' I didn't
mean that it had a lot of material resources … I had in mind the idea of
Australia as a [British] derived society whose prosperity in the great age of
manufacturing came from the luck of its historical origins … In the lucky
style we have never 'earned' our democracy. We simply went along with some
British habits."

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucky_Country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucky_Country)

~~~
larnmar
I’ve always thought that the author of that phrase showed a fundamental
misunderstanding of what _ought_ to make a country prosperous. He seems to
think it’s surprising that Australia’s success has come from the bottom up
(millions of individuals acting in accordance with basically-sensible cultural
norms) rather than top down (imposed by the will of some great leader).

But societal success always comes from the bottom up, and great cultures come
from evolution, not intelligent design.

May the reins of political power in our country continue to exist in the hands
of uncreative intellectual non-entities and suburban solicitors. When Great
Men with Big Ideas get into power it always seems to result in a disaster.

~~~
hnick
I personally think it's more of a give-and-take or feedback loop. Sometimes
you need leaders who recognise strong ideas and run with them.

I think a clear recent example (regardless of personal opinion) is the whole
gay marriage debacle. The majority of the population wanted it but no leader
had the guts to be the one to do it. The closest we got was wasting money on a
plebiscite, spending $80 million to basically ask "are you really sure you
want this?". I don't mind being more directly involved in democracy, but we
never have such plebiscites for other issues. They didn't have the courage to
go ahead without covering their backsides.

Anyway, back to the quote, if we're going to anthropomorphise Australia then
the impression I get is that we are the rich kid who grew up with all the
advantages bestowed upon us by Mother Britain but we never really learned to
fend for ourselves as independent adults. We can't coast forever.

~~~
bigger_cheese
> We can't coast forever.

Funny you should mention that. Keeping Australians 'Relaxed and Comfortable'
was John Howard's election pitch from a famous interview in 1996 and that
legacy of "keep coasting, don't rock the boat why take a risk..." Has pretty
much defined politics in this country ever since.

~~~
hnick
And those "quiet Australians" who conveniently support the status quo :)

------
mcsoft
This guy's father worked for Russian government space agency, trained to be a
cosmonaut. Now he's in the court watching the same government prosecute his
son for political youtube videos. It is a disturbing sign when authorities
press baseless charges against children of people who served their country
their whole life.

~~~
Ididntdothis
"It is a disturbing sign when authorities press baseless charges against
children of people who served their country their whole life."

The baseless charges are disturbing but if they have done something wrong it's
also disturbing to NOT press charges against children of people who served
their country their whole life. Which happens quite a bit.

~~~
mcsoft
I had followed this case closely. Initially they accused a boy with directing
crowds during Moscow protests on July 27, there was a video evidence. He was
arrested and put into jail. Meanwhile prosecutors admitted that the guy on the
video is not him. They let him go, he spent over a month in jail for no
reason. They dropped initial charges but instead of begging his pardon, they
brought totally different, unrelated charges of his blog content being
extremist. While I agree your statement in general, in this particular case it
all _looks_ very thin and biased.

------
shmerl
In Russia, there is no judicial system. Courts are simply rubber stamps for
Putin run mafia, they do the bidding of the boss. So if repressive machine
wants to crush someone, it would do it without hesitation, using hundreds of
anti-social "laws" passed by the fascist Duma (parliament), that does the
bidding of the same boss.

Basically courts do nothing in practice, just pass "judgements" that are
handed to them by the "investigators" or whoever relays the mafia command to
them. And if the boss decides that public would react too much to the court
case, the "judges" might suddenly become more lenient.

------
rdiddly
Not too bad either: The 2012 remarks of Nadya Tolokonnikova (Pussy Riot)
before being sent to prison:

[https://eng-pussy-riot.livejournal.com/4602.html](https://eng-pussy-
riot.livejournal.com/4602.html)

------
zarkov99
I wonder if the New Yorker writer realizes this brave young man is for the
most part quoting the evil, alt-right, misogynistic, transphobic Jordan
Peterson. And whether he would have republished the speech if he did. /s

~~~
dblotsky
Peterson said many other things that are objectionable. If he only said what
Zhukov said, Peterson would also be in a more favourable light.

~~~
zarkov99
Like what? I am fairly familiar with his work, could you point out what you
found problematic? Peterson talks mainly about personal responsibility as the
only way to meaning in a life that is mostly suffering. Clearly this young man
was influenced by that message.

~~~
dblotsky
I find objectionable his “slippery slope” argument about pronouns and his
calls for silencing disciplines with which he disagrees.

~~~
zarkov99
I understand the slippery slope reference,but which disciplines are you
referring to?

~~~
dblotsky
He’s called for some disciplines (e.g. women’s studies, anthropology) to be
boycotted by students and ultimately removed.

------
ourmandave
Sometimes you need a martyr to make people realize the fuckery happening
around them.

For example, from Occupied France during WWII...

 _On 5 December 1940, Bonsergent was convicted by a German military court of
insulting the Wehrmacht as he insisted on taking full responsibility, saying
he wanted to show the French what sort of people the Germans were and he was
shot on 23 December 1940.[50]

The execution of Bonsergent, a man guilty only of being a witness to an
incident that was in itself only very trivial brought home to many of the
French the precise nature of the "New Order in Europe"._

wikipedia link:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance)

~~~
Waterluvian
The incredible bravery, to me, comes from the fact that you can't know for
sure your sacrifice will ultimately mean anything or be noticed by anyone.

~~~
GVRV
This is what is so interesting about it to me. If I were Snowden, I would have
been suicidal or at least extremely depressed seeing how I basically threw
away my life without the public caring at all (were there any long term
changes? Does the average global citizen care about government spying? Were
the responsible government officials brought to justice?).

If no one cares about your sacrifice, then what's the point of making the
sacrifice in the first place? I know this is a very negative point of view
looking at the world, but it's something I've been spending a lot of time
thinking about as I grow up (maybe it's a normal thing you realise when you're
starting to change into a realist from an idealist as you mature).

~~~
anovikov
At the very least, privacy practices have evolved dramatically since Snowden
affair. Everyone uses end-to-end encryption now, a website without https is
now eyebrows-raising. So while government spying probably didn't reduce, there
is a lot less they can do now.

~~~
GVRV
I agree there have been improvements in the right direction, but if you were
in Snowden's shoes, would you be satisfied with these improvements compared to
the sacrifices you've made and continue to make? Why did he have to throw away
a normal, comfortable life with good pay for constant anxiety and uncertainty
to expose something to the citizens of the world - when the citizens of the
world don't even want to stop watching Netflix to do something about this
issue?

~~~
anovikov
He created as much of a scandal as an ordinary person possibly can make.
People definitely noticed.

------
nopriorarrests
The problem here is Gessen uses Zhukov's words to bash Donald Trump, but
neglects to mention that Zhukov is a right-winger who supports Trump, and the
Tea Party. He's also anti-feminist & new yorker readers would feel differently
if they knew these things. It's disingenuous.

[https://twitter.com/27khv/status/1203785706860109830](https://twitter.com/27khv/status/1203785706860109830)

~~~
scandox
If you're quoting someone you should indicate that. If you're quoting Bryan
MacDonald well I think you should validate it pretty carefully. And if you are
Bryan MacDonald...well I'm not surprised how you turned out Bryan.

~~~
nopriorarrests
Yes, I'am quoting Bryan MacDonald, sorry if it wasn't clear. And since I speak
russian, I can attest that his tweet is factually correct.

~~~
kelvich
Well, there is a video where Zhukov tells that he doesn't agree with principle
of collective responsibility advocated by _some_ feminists. Calling him anti-
feminist after that is kind of big jump, isn't it?

------
larnmar
I found the speech very interesting, and the columnist’s attempt to twist it
into relevance about his own hobbyhorse of US politics to be very boring.

Russian politics is very interesting on its own, and we hear far too little
about it (whilst also hearing far too much about US politics). The analogies
between the two are extremely weak and generally uninformative; saying “my
opponent is like Putin” carries no more information than “my opponent is a big
poop face”.

~~~
baybal2
Russian politics? There are no such things since late nineties.

Whatever "opposition" is left in Russia today, is no more real than the token
opposition to the CPSU that legally existed in the Soviet Union.

There is a long held Russian political tradition that long proceeded the
creation of the Union: they pick the weakest enemy, the weakest opposition
camp, and then surround them with spies, puppets, and then purposely let them
show everybody their helpless, futile struggle.

In comparison, all credible opponents to the CPSU was dealt with in the
swiftest way, without even a token trial. They either met their demise from
KGB's signature potato trucks, or simply "disappeared" Latin American style.

The same was with modern Russia. The last credible, real opposition to
MAFIA—KGB chimera was the Primakov-Lebed group. Lebed died in a helicopter
crash, and Primakov, you know it. At the same time, KGB plotters didn't care
the slightest about formal liberal opposition, because they knew that they
were complete jokes, incapable of killing a fly.

Nor Primakov, nor Lebed were even remotely "liberal." That fabled "Russian
liberal opposition" only existed in the imagination of Western
"Kremlinologists." Those "non-violent resistance" clowns brought demise not
only on themselves, but all and everybody else who was capable of standing
against resurgent KGB. Their last chance assassinating Putin expired right
around 2005-2006, and you know what those clowns did back then? They said "we
need to bring Putin to Hague...," few month later a wave of assassinations
rolled over Russia

~~~
notfromhere
It's always been interesting to watch that despite a lot of common
similarities, politics took a different turn in Ukraine. While Ukrainians
regularly run their politicians out of office, the same doesn't happen in
Russia.

~~~
m0zg
That's probably why Ukraine's per-capita GDP is about one third that of Russia
(itself a pretty poor country) - each new cohort of politicians has to rob the
country blind again and again, and they have to do it quick before they are
chased out of the office. In Russia everyone knows Putin and his cronies
aren't going anywhere until Putin croaks, and dude seems to be in good health
for the time being.

[https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?locat...](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?locations=UA)

[https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?locat...](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?locations=RU)

~~~
notfromhere
Russia has oil, Ukraine doesn’t.

------
notlukesky
President Obama allegedly attempted to kill a similar YouTuber/journalist
American citizen.

[https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-syria-drones-
kill...](https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-syria-drones-kill-list-
first-amendment-dni-ukraine-a9127116.html)

In Russia they put you on trial.

From the Wikipedia link on the American YouTuber:

Bilal Abdul Kareem (born Darrell Lamont Phelps) is an American journalist and
war correspondent covering the Syrian Civil War.[1][2][3] He has worked with
CNN,[4] and produces the YouTube channel On the Ground News TV (OGN TV).[2] He
believes that he has been placed on the U.S. kill list.[5][6][7][8] He claims
to have survived five drone assassination attempts by the U.S. military, which
killed random civilians that were present nearby, including two attacks on
vehicles he was traveling in, including one where the car he was sitting in
was blown up by a missile shot from a drone.[9][10]

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilal_Abdul_Kareem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilal_Abdul_Kareem)

[https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/journalist-bilal-abdul-
ka...](https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/journalist-bilal-abdul-kareem-files-
lawsuit-over-alleged-us-kill-list)

~~~
sAbakumoff
Putin's regime killed dozens of journalists.

~~~
notlukesky
Well known and documented. Just like the Putin regime, the Obama regime and W
Bush regimes also killed journalists.

[https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/apr/09/pressandpublis...](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/apr/09/pressandpublishing.Iraqandthemedia)

