November 18

Dear John

Thanks for your reply on facebook. Glad things are good with you!

I'm still in Switzerland, looking after my son and writing a book on cricket, plus doing some writing/editing for [name deleted].

Putin's War has destroyed the Russian art market. My wife's mother lives in Russia, but there are no longer flights between Moscow and Geneva, getting visas is extremely difficult, and transferring money impossible. Do you still have contact with Russia? I've given up contacting people there. Everything's surveilled and everyone's scared to death of being caught speaking the truth. I hope it will all end with Putin's death and, hopefully, the disintegration of a perpetually self-aggrandizing country that is really only a souped-up Muscovy. I haven't been back since 2019 and no prospect/intention of doing so before regime change.

Please let me know if you ever come to Switzerland. You're always welcome to stay the night with us!

Cheers

November 18

Dear S…,

I had to double-check the date on your email -- you sound like a circa 1983 right-ring Reagan supporter. 🙂

Well, I hope these divergent views of the world won't interfere with our friendship. The 4 million year old human race might soon be nothing but a memory. Not much time is left, so, there's no point in feuding. I've always valued your friendship, appreciated your sharp wit, attention to detail and critical eye. I only ask that you apply that same level of criticism to what our government and media are force-feeding us today. Perhaps if enough of us take a stand, then just perhaps we can stop the march to perdition.

warm wishes

John

November 19

Dear John

Many thanks for the kind remarks and the Reagan comparison which, as a committed centrist (with anarchist leanings), rather amused me. At least Reagan had the gumption and moral compass to call out Russia’s evil empire and hasten its (temporary) demise.

Finding you an intelligent and decent-minded fellow, I’ve always been a little disconcerted by what I perceive as your indiscriminate advocacy on behalf of the Motherland. So I was being a bit provocative – to draw you out, as it were. Many thanks for your thought-provoking comments.

Unlike you, I was not brought up to hate Russia but to treat Russian culture with respect – as a teenager reading Tolstoy, Lermontov et al, listening to Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, studying Russian to a decent level at school. We had a wonderful Russian teacher – English but married to a Russian –  who transmitted both a love of Russian culture and hatred of Soviet Russia, which few right- and certainly no centre-minded people would disagree with.

I started going to Russia in 2004 to report on art and returned over 30 times before my last trip in 2019. I was struck by the dichotomy between the open-minded, generous and erudite people I came across in far larger numbers than one would in the west, on the one hand, and the stifling lack of freedom on the other. The art world was a little freer than society at large, but it soon started getting cracked down on, initially through the agency of the Putin-grovellin’ Orthodox Church. There were two things I didn’t like about Russians: their rabid nationalism/chauvinism (very similar to Americans’), and an utter inability to accept criticism in any form, which I suspect derives from an inherent national inferiority complex. When I get criticized, I weigh up the criticism and decide whether (a) it is well-intended or malicious and (b) it contains anything I can usefully appropriate. Criticize a Russian (or Russia) and all you ever get back is the comment ‘What About You (or The West/Your Country)?’

The art market was dealt a first blow in 2008 when Putin invaded Georgia, a ‘test run’ for future aggression to see how far the West would react (mildly). There was no big change in mood in Russia that I could detect after 2008, but there certainly was after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. I was in Moscow shortly afterwards to be bombarded by gloating NASH KRIM posters on every street corner and to come across a newfangled ‘Eurasia’ concept that basically meant Putin/Russia turning their back on the West.

Russia has no more right to Crimea than the U.K. does to the Falkland Islands. Ukraine certainly does have a right to Crimea: Russia gave it to it in 1954, and signed a Treaty guaranteeing Ukraine’s borders in 1993. Having said that, if anyone has a ‘right’ to Crimea (a ‘country’ having a ‘right’ to an area of land is a ludicrous concept, but then so are countries) it is the Tartars. I’d like to see Crimea independent under Tartar rule.

Russia invaded Crimea in 1783, for no other reason than imperial greed and Potyomkin’s desire to flatter Catherine II. Just as Russia invaded (clockwise) Siberia, Central Asia, the Caucausus, Bessarabia, Poland (several times), the whole of eastern Europe, the Baltic States and Finland… and now Ukraine – an independent state with the sovereign right to apply to whatever international organization it pleases, whether or not this ‘offends’ a neighbouring state that already occupies one-sixth of the world’s land surface (with which it does fuck all to benefit its own citizens, oligarchs aside).

As for your criticism of ‘our guys’ – their hypocrisy, their approach to war as ‘a Racket’ – yeah, sure, no problems with that. But (a) the point is irrelevant as regards Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and (b) you’re sounding like a Russian: ‘don’t criticize me, look at yourself.’ I am no fan whatsoever of the U.S. (or the U.K.), but they’re sure as hell better than Putin’s Russia. I am a fan of the E.U., and I hope Ukraine will shortly be part of it. I am reasonably pro-NATO, though disgusted by its pussy-footing response to the invasion of Ukraine, and I hope Ukraine will very soon be part of it, too. I hope that, once Putin has gone the way of Hitler, Russia will also be part of NATO and the E.U. Come to think of it, if Russia were part of the E.U. you probably wouldn’t need NATO any more.

As a journalist, I naturally believe NOTHING that is put out by media or governments.

Cheers

November 19

Dear S…,

All good points and I was on board with what you wrote until the moment when the right-wing Ukrainian nationalists who seized power in Kiev began bombing the ethnic Russians of Donbass and the massacre in Odessa. That's when I said, "I'm out", and I began to part ways with many Ukrainian friends who turned out to be apologists for bloodthirsty thugs and murderers. Sorry, I just don't have an appetite for mass murder. I wonder why you see that as "indiscriminate advocacy for the Motherland". I think it's basic human decency.

As far as Crimea, well, that's Geopolitics 101, and I gather that you've never been to Crimea because your comparison with the Falklands is rather empty, if not lacking in intellectual integrity (because I know you know better). Every powerful empire has the right to, and will fight to secure key regions near its borders. Just like the US will never allow any other power to meddle in Mexico, so Russia shouldn't tolerate NATO meddling in Ukraine, which is the second largest and militarily powerful country in Europe. 

Or, let me put it another way -- if you want to ignite World War 3, then Yes, NATO should meddle in Ukraine. 

Please look closely at your family and then ask yourself this question -- Are Crimea and Donbass worth World War 3 and possibly a nuclear war?

We certainly live in fascinating times! 

best wishes

John

November 21

John,

Russia is winning ? increasingly powerful ? having planned to overrun Kiev inside 72 hours ?

You really are a bonkers Putin apologist, John. 

I had hoped that I was mistaken in thinking that, alas not.

cheers,

November 22

S… ,

I'm surprised that you treat these horrors so lightly. When did you make the shift to the far-right? 

My advice -- keep your focus on cricket. Geopolitics is clearly not your forte.

best wishes

John