The Afghanistan veteran



Vladimir Barabanov is a veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and heads a local branch of the Union of Afghanistan Veterans in Russia’s western Bryansk Oblast. Barabanov, a senior reserve lieutenant who served in Herat and Kabul between 1986-88, held a protest with fellow veterans on 5 September. A second demonstration is scheduled for 13 September.

“We remember perfectly how Afghanistan started. We don’t want those events to repeat themselves,” Barabanov says. “They told us, the last Soviet soldiers, that the war in Afghanistan war would be the last – that our losses weren’t in vain, that our colleagues died so that such wars would never be repeated. The war that is currently going on in Ukraine with Russia’s participation nullifies those losses.



How will we look Ukrainians in the eye tomorrow?

“Authorities need to distract people from social problems using a small victorious war. I think that the reason for the war is social. People are unsatisfied, both in Russia and in Ukraine. They’re looking for someone to blame for our bad lives. All this looks like a special operation – as former soldiers, we can see that perfectly well.

“How will we look Ukrainians in the eye tomorrow? The war will end, and a Ukrainian will ask: ‘And where were you, why didn’t you say anything? Didn’t your son fight against mine?’ The blame will be on all of us. Those of us who are going out on the square want to say that we have no relations to this filth. Why do they hide the loses of the Russian forces? The same thing happened in Afghanistan. There are a lot of analogies.”

(Interview by Arslan Saidov, read in full in Russian)

The retired geologist

Muscovite Irina Epifanovskaya, 59, is a retired geologist who now spends much of her time engaged in civil activism. She was arrested in central Moscow after she stood alone and holding a small sign reading “No war with Ukraine”.



Muscovite Irina Epifanovskaya was arrested in central Moscow Photograph: Irina Epifanovskaya

“A lot of people simply walk by when you’re protesting. But since I’ve spent my entire summer doing this, I can say that I’ve seen an enormous shift since June and July,” Epifanovskaya says.

“In recent weeks, people have come up to me and shaken my hand two or three times; some thanked me or said they supported me. There wasn’t anything like that before. It’s because this undeclared war has entered a new stage, one whose traces are already clearly visible – the ‘cargo 200’ coffins [believed to transport Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine].”

“I’ve already lived most of my life. All of my basic needs are attended to. My children are grown. I had a profession, I had things I loved to do, and I still do. I’m beyond being afraid of what might happen to me when I protest. It hit me so hard, in the deepest part of my soul, that permission was given to send troops to Ukraine! It should be clear to any sensible person that Russia can’t fight with the nation that’s closest to it. I look at it as my personal affair and my personal grief.”



(Interview by Lyubov Chizhova, read in full in Russian)

The advocate



Aleksandr Osovtsov is a former lawmaker and director of the Open Russia fund. He offers free legal assistance to Russian soldiers who refuse to participate in military operations in Ukraine. He details the right of conscientious objectors under Russian law in a post on his Facebook page.

“I believe what’s going on right now is an absolutely full-fledged war,” says Osovtsov. “Maybe the parties have yet to use their full forces and means, but the United States didn’t use its full force in Vietnam or Iraq, and no one was arguing that the phrase ‘Vietnam war’ had no right to exist. It was a war, and it’s the same thing here. As soon as Russian military units were located on Ukrainian territory and engaging in hostilities, it was a war.

At the moment the chance of an anti-war movement in Russia is very small

“It’s legally possible for those who want to refuse to serve in Ukraine to do so. Every person should decide for himself. That, of course, won’t stop the war, but it can give people the chance not to participate if they don’t want to – and moreover to do it on an absolutely legal basis. I know of quite a few cases when Russian soldiers refused to participate in fighting in Chechnya, and not one of them faced criminal liability as a result.



Aleksandr Osovtsov is a former lawmaker and director of the Open Russia fund Photograph: RFE/RL

“At the moment the chance of an anti-war movement in Russia is very small. I really don’t want to think like this, but logically I can’t imagine another situation. It will take the ‘Cargo 200’ and ‘Cargo 300’ – [code names for] dead and wounded – before people start to think and realise that no one normal needs this war.”

(Interview by Mark Krutov, read in full in Russian)

The film director

Film and theatre director Vladimir Mirzoyev was among the signatories of a recent open letter published in Novaya Gazeta protesting the war in Ukraine and what they called Russia’s self-isolation and the restoration of totalitarianism.

“I understand that our population is deeply traumatised by the entire 20th century,” Mirzoyev says. “These are people who can easily fall into a state of maniacal euphoria and patriotic psychosis, and just as easily fall into depression. It’s a bipolar disorder, where people react to generally frightening things in a completely inappropriate way. They deny that a war is being waged. It’s possible, of course, to say that Russians are a victim of TV propaganda, but after all it’s still not that hard to get on the internet to find alternative information to compare and contrast the facts. But they don’t want to compare anything, they can’t accept the thought that their country, their homeland, is the aggressor.

Our population is deeply traumatised by the entire 20th century

“Of course, the catastrophes of the 20th century aren’t lost on the population. All these traumas have been absorbed by families, recorded in the memories of entire generations, and these people aren’t healed. Now that they’ve started pouring salt and sulfuric acid on the wounds, they’re breaking down completely. People are very sick. And so they’re giving an inappropriate response.”

(Interview by Andrei Shary, read in full in Russian)

The physicist

Mikhail Lashkevich is a researcher at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in the town of Chernogolovka, outside Moscow. He was detained by police in August after standing on a busy Moscow street holding a poster reading “Why is our country led by a raging idiot?” on one side, and “It’s not your war, but your children are going to die in it!” on the other.

“I oppose the war precisely because it’s Russia that’s unleashing it, because it’s so obviously a war of aggression,” says Lashkevich. “I recently read a definition of aggression that is used at the United Nations, and of the seven points, there’s only one that Russia hasn’t violated. There’s one aggressive action that it hasn’t taken – it hasn’t allowed its territory to be used by a third aggressor. But it’s done everything else. It’s annexed territory, it’s introduced its own troops, it’s supported terrorist groups on the territory of a neighbouring country, and so on.

Mikhail Lashkevich was detained by police in August. Photograph: Mikhail Lashkevich

“I don’t discuss my views at work. I talk about it only with colleagues that I’m close to. It’s a fairly liberal situation in this sense. There’s no trouble at work.”

(Interview by Lyubov Chizhova, read in full in Russian)

The activist

Natalya Tsymbalova is a founding member of St Petersburg’s Straight Alliance, a human rights organisation that aims to rally heterosexual activists behind the fight for equality for Russia’s LGBT community. On Ukrainian independence day on 24 August, she was berated by a hostile crowd for standing on a central street carrying a sign reading, “Petersburg congratulates Ukraine on Independence Day.” She has since applied for asylum in Spain following after receiving threats of violence. She spoke to RFE/RL before leaving Russia.

There’s a feeling that the battle is hopeless and that it’s only going to get worse

“What’s happening now shows that we were right – this was never limited to gays. [Authorities] honed their technology of manipulation and propaganda on the LGBT community... and now exactly the same thing is happening with regard to Ukraine... they’re all ‘banderovtsy’ and ‘fascists’. It’s an absolutely virtual concept that has nothing to do with reality,” Tsymbalova says.

“A lot of people in our circles are thinking about leaving [Russia]. Even that small minority who have always said that this is our country and we’ll fight to the last are thinking about emigration. There’s a feeling that the battle is hopeless and that it’s only going to get worse... It’s all very dangerous and unpleasant, and the main thing is there’s no hope, no hope at all.”

(Interview by Dmitry Volchek, read in full in Russian)



