Ad agosto sono stato in Lituania. Abbiamo noleggiato una macchina e girato il Paese. È stato bellissimo, ma non è questo che voglio raccontare.
Una sera, a Vilnius, una persona che era con me mi ha detto una frase: «In Italia non ci abbiamo capito niente».
Quel giorno avevamo visitato l’ex sede del KGB. Celle grandi quanto un armadio, stanze di tortura, prigioni per dissidenti e religiosi. Una stanza dove i prigionieri politici venivano giustiziati, uno dopo l’altro, e i corpi fatti sparire. Ci sono ancora i buchi dei proiettili nel muro. Nel museo, oltre ai crimini commessi dall’URSS (milioni di persone deportate, intere famiglie distrutte, oppositori perseguitati…), viene raccontata anche la storia dei partigiani lituani. Uomini e donne che combattevano e morivano per liberare il proprio Paese dall’occupazione sovietica.
E quella voglia di non finire mai più sotto il dominio russo la senti ovunque. Nei musei, nelle testimonianze delle persone, nelle condanne ai crimini che la Russia commette ancora oggi. Senti una continuità storica fortissima, come se quello che succede oggi in Ucraina fosse anche parte della loro storia.
Quella persona era rimasta in silenzio per un po’ prima di dirmi quella frase. Aveva votato comunista per gran parte della sua giovinezza. Come tanti italiani, era cresciuta pensando che il comunismo fosse l’opposto del fascismo e quindi il massimo della libertà e della giustizia. Per lei la bandiera dell’URSS rappresentava la liberazione, la resistenza, la difesa degli oppressi. E invece: «Mentre in Italia votavo comunista, qui c’erano persone che venivano imprigionate, torturate e uccise proprio da chi finanziava il partito che votavo».
Non erano cose che non si potevano sapere. Le repressioni sovietiche erano denunciate già allora. Ma l’URSS finanziava il più grande partito comunista dell’Occidente, quello italiano, ed esercitava un’enorme influenza sulla nostra vita politica e culturale. La propaganda sovietica ha lasciato un’impronta profondissima in Italia. Quella di Putin ha saputo sfruttare anche quell’eredità.
Siamo cresciuti in un Paese dove gli stessi simboli che per milioni di europei rappresentavano occupazione, deportazioni e repressione venivano esibiti come simboli di libertà. E con questa storia non abbiamo mai fatto davvero i conti.
Ancora oggi c’è chi scende in piazza con bandiere sovietiche, convinto di stare dalla parte degli oppressi. E penso a quei ragazzi e a quelle ragazze lituane, e non solo, che mentre noi celebravamo l’URSS morivano per liberarsi proprio dall’URSS. Per essere liberi.
«In Italia non ci abbiamo capito niente». E purtroppo continuiamo a non capire.
Deshalb wird es auch nie eine echte Solidarität von ganz Links für die Ukraine, Moldau, Georgien, Litauen, Estland, Lettland geben, wenn um Angriffe und Unterdrückung aus Russland oder vom sowjetnostalgischen Lukashenko-Regime geht.
Agreed.
Putin is the furthest thing from a humanitarian.
He is a full blown terrorist and the US should treat him like one before Amercians get a rude awakening in how violent multipolarity truly is.
It’s coming. And then someday people will ask how we got to a point where Russia, China and Iran dominate the world in the near future.
This is how. By letting Putin off easy for his crimes against humanity.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:
Russian forces just launched a massive attack on a thermal power plant that belongs to DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company. The power plant has now stopped generating electricity.
While I was in Ukraine in July, I saw this side of Russia's war against Ukraine with my own eyes.
After driving back from Kharkiv, where I passed gas stations that had been destroyed in recent Russian drone strikes, I visited a @dtek_en power substation outside of Kyiv that Russian forces have been working to destroy since 2022. Despite multiple missile attacks, Ukrainians rebuilt the facility and got it back up and running.
The purpose of the visit was to understand how Russia is systematically targeting Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure. The Russians attack not just military sites, but the systems ordinary people rely on every day to keep the lights on.
On the way to the substation, there was an air raid alert.
We immediately had to follow the site's emergency protocol because Russia continues targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
We immediately rushed into a bomb shelter beneath a nearby school as the sound of explosions could be heard nearby.
The safest place we could seek shelter was inside the bomb shelter for a local school that is next to DTEK, because Ukrainian children have to hide there whenever Russia launches missiles and drones. These kids aren't on a battlefield. They're trying to go to school.
This wasn't a drill. I experienced firsthand what it's like to have your day interrupted because Russia is trying to terrorize an entire country.
I met with the energy workers and grid operators who keep Ukraine's lights on.
They told me about the brutal attacks on their energy grid last winter, how Russia deliberately tried to leave millions of civilians without heat and electricity, and why they're worried about the coming winter, especially if Ukraine doesn't urgently receive enough air defense.
What struck me most was their patriotism. Each of these workers understands they could become a target simply by going to work. Yet, they keep showing up, because they believe keeping the lights on in Ukraine is part of defending their country from Putin’s aggression.
Americans should pay attention to what's happening and how Putin is terrorizing Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Ukraine's experience is a reminder that energy security is national security. Critical infrastructure can become a battlefield, and protecting it is essential for any nation.
There is a lot we can learn from Ukraine.
WATCH my full interview at DTEK here: 👇🏻
@myroslavapetsa There is no such concept as “historical lands.” There are only lands defined by international law and established by the corresponding treaties.
Churchill could have shortened WW2 by years if he had just “done a deal” with Hitler. George Washington could have done a deal to end the American Revolution. Zelenskyy is in good company.
⚠️"Il faut que tout le monde voie ces images".
Guillaume Guérin, maire de Limoges, nous fait une visite de son Hôtel de Ville sous les décombres.
Je me refuse désormais à nommer ces gens-là d'émeutiers ou de casseurs.
Ce sont des terroristes.
EXCLUSIF - Les larmes de Guillaume Guérin dans sa mairie dévastée à Limoges : « Il faut que tout le monde voie ces images » https://t.co/r1Ru9lZZaa via @ParisMatch@DenisCarreaux
Je vis à Limoges et aujourd’hui on se réveille tous avec une énorme gueule de bois sans bien comprendre ce qui vient de se passer.
Ce bâtiment c’est la mairie de Limoges.
143 ans d’histoire.
Des œuvres d’art.
Et forcément des milliers de souvenirs pour tous les limougeauds.
Un bâtiment qui a résisté aux 2 guerres mondiales…
Et il est tombé aujourd’hui face a une minorité de casseurs décérébrés qui ont semé le chaos dans la ville.
Tout en exultant leur joie avec une impunité déconcertante.
C’est plus qu’une image.
C’est un symbole d’une France qui se fracture.
Parce qu’en plus de ces images choquantes
Ce sont des magasins pillés
Des voitures brûlées
Des entreprises qui vont fermer
Des salariés qui vont pointer aux chômages
Et des coûts monstrueux pour tout remettre en état alors que la France fait face à la plus grande crise budgétaire de ce siècle.
Ceux qui cassent vont ils réparer ?
Vont ils payer la note qui va se chiffrer en centaines de millions dans toute la France ?
Vont ils être tout simplement être punis ?
L’avenir est sombre pour la France…
I’m French. 🇫🇷
And I’m tired of watching people confuse freedom with the freedom to destroy.
You have the right to protest.
You have the right to be angry.
You have the right to demand change.
You do NOT have the right to burn, loot or attack people.
A Republic that protects the right to protest must also protect its citizens from violence.
That’s not authoritarianism.
That’s the rule of law.
.@elonmusk please tell me these overnight disruptions to Starlink terminals in Ukraine were unintended - that @SpaceX is doing everything it can to fix a temporary glitch.
I'm confident this does not reflect a change in SpaceX policy because if so, intentionally degrading Ukraine's ability to defend itself might be construed as aiding and abetting a mass murderer. Can you confirm that's not SpaceX’s intent?
Ukrainians simply want to live in peace. They did not ask Putin to bomb their homes, schools and hospitals. They do not want Putin to kidnap and brainwash their children. They are not interested in destroying energy infrastructure - in Ukraine or in Russia. They only want to defend their country and live their lives.
Supporting Ukrainian sovereignty - or at the very least, allowing for it - should not be a gray area for the U.S. government or for American corporations. Can you clarify the SpaceX position?
https://t.co/cPtszYRzSz
Sergei Lavrov says Russia is on guard because NATO is planning for war. The alliance does have plans, as military alliances tend to, and they grew considerably more detailed after February 2022 for reasons Moscow might recall.
What Lavrov presents as Western aggression is the predictable result of invading a neighbour, sending drones into Polish airspace and flying jets over Estonia. Europe is rearming because Russia gave it every reason to, and the Kremlin's foreign minister now cites the consequences of his own government's policy as proof that it was right all along.
Vivaldi's “Winter,” visualized in a fascinating way, so that the auditory experience is even more intense; one can literally “see” the music, so to speak