A picket was held in Kirov last Saturday against, as the picketers believe, the “possible start” of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The rally took place near the monument to the Bolshevik Sergei Kirov (after whom the city is named), six activists took part in it. They unfurled posters urging the Kremlin not to start a war against Ukraine. The picketers held the flags of Ukraine and Russia over them.
– I learned about militaristic sentiments from my mother-in-law, who watches TV, – he shared with site correspondent Idel.Realities one of the organizers of the anti-war action, teacher Sergey Dyadkin… – It is felt that Putin’s media are again stirring up chauvinistic hysteria, as it was during the occupation of Crimea in 2014. An inhabitant of central Russia does not know what war is. It seems to him that after the Second World War we always have a “peaceful sky” over our heads. And the fact that Russia in the post-Soviet period waged war in Chechnya, Georgia, Ukraine, Syria is forgotten. Ukraine has always been, is and will be the closest and friendliest country for thinking and conscientious Russians, said the Kirov teacher.
Participants of the anti-war action said that most of the passers-by did not support the picket, some spat in the direction of the picketers, others twisted their fingers at their temples and called the picketers offensive or swear words. The residents of Kirov, mostly people of the older generation, called for “wiping Ukraine off the face of the earth,” while the protesters were offered “not to dishonor themselves.”
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