Much of the reportage of the Ukraine invasion has focused (rightly) on the heroism of the Ukrainian people and the terrible toll of the war. This particularly moving podcast provides a window in the lives of a small set of Russians who disagree viscerally with the invasion - but do not have the freedom to do so. This is thus a snapshot in the lives of Russians who have left their country because they oppose the invasion.
Early last year, there was another interview with Yevgenia Albats, the editor of The New Times, a Russian magazine. She spoke bravely against the invasion but that despite the crackdown on dissent, that she must be in Russia.
I'm a citizen of the Russian Federation. And I always thought that being a political journalist, I have to have the same sort of constraints, in the same settings, as people I write for. I could have applied for Israeli citizenship because I'm Jewish, or Spanish or Portuguese citizenship, because centuries ago, my ancestors went from Morocco and they were kicked out from Spain and Portugal. It never even occurred to me to do that. I thought: “I have to be just a Russian citizen, as the readers are for whom I write.”
She too left Russia in September last year.
Do listen to the two podcasts, they really brings home the pivotal importance of political freedoms we often take for granted.