I think it was in 2006. The year I started to get a bad feeling in Russia.
On my many travels in the country, I discovered that it was not true, what Norwegian and other European politicians constantly said.
“Russia is still a young democracy, we must give them time.”
“They are on the right track.”
“We need to work with Putin to help him create a better society.”
The statements were more an expression of wishful thinking than expertise, which became clear for the first time when Russia invaded Georgia in 2008.
Predictions came true
For almost 20 years now I have been writing books and articles. Talked for hundreds of hours on TV about the Russian regime’s repression of press freedom, human rights violations and aggressive military rearmament.
And on February 24, 2022, I was right in my gloomy predictions for the future.
Russia started an unprovoked war of aggression against one of its neighbors.
Europe has been thrown into a new great war, in which a seemingly irrational Vladimir Putin destroys everything in his path – from innocent civilians to nuclear power plants.
And yet the war is young. It can get much, much worse.
– WILL BE: TV 2’s team in Ukraine has reported from Lviv since the invasion on 24 February. Photo: Aage Aune / TV 2.
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I have to stay
Friends, colleagues and family ask why I want to stay here in Ukraine. It is dangerous. I could be killed.
I do not think I’m particularly brave of me. But I’m convinced of one thing:
This is not just Ukraine’s war.
It’s also my war as a journalist!
I have a duty to be here as long as I am physically able to convey what is happening.
Because I believe in the inviolable right of human beings to live – in peace and freedom. Because I believe in freedom of speech and democracy. Because I believe the good will always overcome the evil, but only if we let the truth light up the evil.
This is a war where there is little gray, and almost exclusively black and white. A brutal, constantly lying dictator stands against a democratic country that is struggling to survive.
Censored and threatened
Foreign journalists are now leaving Moscow for fear of falling victim to a new law in which those who do not pass on Putin’s official version of the war risk 15 years in prison.
Western social media is blocked. The latest Russian independent media have been gagged.
Yes, this is my war!
And if you support democracy rather than dictatorship. Human rights over tyranny. Freedom of opinion rather than censorship – then it is also yours.
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