The intensity of the feeling of complete isolation from the rest of the civilised world is bearing in on Russian minds. Boris Vishnevskii quotes the great popular poet of the 19th Century Nikolai Nekrasov: “There were worse times, but not meaner times.” To avert a slide back into totalitarianism with the iron curtain, he insists, “changes must be made in the political system that would afford us hope of escaping isolation and the removal of sanctions destroying the economy and the well being of the people.” And he is blunt about it: “Above all changes that do not allow one person to take all the key decisions (or pretend they are being taken collectively by surrounding oneself with courtiers who daren’t object).”

Novaya gazeta:

Но не было подлей

Россия возвращается к своему тоталитарному прошлому. Сможем ли мы свернуть с этого пути?

09:56, 12 марта 2022Борис Вишневский, обозреватель, депутат ЗакСа Петербурга