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Former OPW Director on Peace Mission to Russia

The following was written for The PeaceWorker by Peter Bergel, one of our June trip members. Peter is a former Director of Oregon PeaceWorks and the founding editor of The PeaceWorker. He is now a member of the OPW Board and calls himself an “activist at large.”

Dear Friends, Supporters and OPW Members,

As some of you know, I’ll leave on June 15 to join a citizen diplomacy peace delegation to Russia for two weeks. I will take with me a peace message from the mayor and mayor-elect of Salem, OR and will, I hope, bring back peace messages from Russian citizens, decision-makers, academicians and journalists. I will also listen carefully to the Russians’ concerns, especially those that concern our own country. At the same time, I will assure them that whatever our government may be doing in our name, it does not represent me when it threatens Russia with missiles placed practically on its doorstep. I hope I’ll be representing your views as well as I do this.

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Latest Trip to Russia: During a Challenging Time

Hi Friends,

trip map
(Click map to see larger version)

Within the week we leave for Russia during an extremely dangerous time. Some 31,000 armed NATO troops have stationed themselves in the Baltic countries and are doing unprecedented “war maneuvers” in preparation for a supposed Russian takeover of these three tiny states. Gigantic warships have been moved into position around Russia’s periphery, enormous amounts of military hardware stand ready for use. (BTW, there is not a shred of evidence that Russia has any intention to take a centimeter of the Baltic countries’ space.)

To understand the seriousness of it all, listen to the June 8 podcast of The John Batchelor Show’s interview with Professor Steve Cohen, America’s undisputed historian and expert on all aspects of US-USSR/Russia relations.

Cohen and other U.S. experts in the field are deeply alarmed that this NATO show of force could be the prelude to World War III, by accident or by intention.

VV Putin has made it clear that Russia will never start a war, that Russia’s military is purely defensive; but if missiles or boots land on Russian soil, Russia will “respond nuclear.” This week he stated that if there is any war-making on Russian territory, the countries which have allowed NATO missile installations on their territories will be in the “crosshairs,” thus alerting these countries they will be the first to be destroyed. Further, Putin warned NATO that Russia’s targets will include North America.

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Russia’s New “Gulag Museum” – Facing the Past

Sharon Tennison

Gulag Museum 1
The stark Gulag Museum in Moscow

…. A drizzly gray day in Moscow …. patches of brownish snow and ice still on sidewalks ….

We arrived at the new “Gulag Museum,” a grim building which had been denuded of traditional Russian plaster, paint or any effort to make it look hospitable. External bare bricks left to the elements––rain, snow, ice, freezing winds––not unlike millions of inhabitants of the former gulags. The harsh exterior had apparently been deemed appropriate for this national museum which presents in detail the grim facts behind the Soviet Union’s infamous and heretofore little acknowledged years. The earliest gulags opened in 1918, and the last closed in 1953.

Waiting for us at the gray entrance was Alexei Pankin, a Moscow friend from the 1990s who has had experience in every form of Soviet and Russian journalism from the late 80s forward.

Since 1983 I had wondered if it would ever happen that Russians would be far enough removed from this nationwide horror to open up the wounds of their tragic Soviet past.   [Continue Reading]

Join Fellow Citizen Diplomats on Our June Russia Trip

volgograd train 2015June 15- 30, 2016, I will lead a group of forward-thinking, informal citizen diplomats to Moscow, Krasnodar, St. Petersburg and the newly rejoined Crimea (Yalta, Simferopol, and Sevastopol). Our chief objective will be to get a realistic understanding of Russia today, from students at their universities to policy makers in their offices. We will engage in informal discussions with Russian businessmen and women, NGO organizers, physicians, educators, working journalists and families in their homes. Dividing up in groups of four Americans each day, we will have different experiences which will later develop into a composite picture of what collectively we have learned.

This will be no ordinary trip. We will catch metros and taxis and forego tourist buses with tour guides. We will try to squeeze in a few cultural activities. I wouldn’t want you to miss the truly exceptional palaces and landmarks, like the Yalta palace where Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met to divide up the spoils of WWII. It is lovely beyond imagination. The place reeks of history! If you want more cultural activities, local professional guides can be arranged. And you can veer off by yourself from the planned meetings as you wish.

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Caught in a Dragnet?

Friends, due to the onslaught of requests for information regarding my “arrest” in Volgograd, and others’ concerns about their up-coming trips to Russia, I decided to give a fuller description of what happened on February 18th when I was caught in a net of arrests and detainments that were taking place throughout Russia. Part of this information was covered in our “St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Volgograd” trip report, so please excuse duplications.

You may also want to read Radio Free Europe’s article about the detainment–which I consider quite good, considering that they usually tend to be fairly anti-Russia.

addressing-volgograd-rotaryOn February 16, 2016, in the historic city of Volgograd, I had just finished my remarks to a packed room of Volgograd Rotarians. As I took my seat, three persons loomed in front of me, one a woman with a sizable videocamera. They seemed right in my face. A serious looking young man on the left asked for my passport which I immediately provided. I had no concern. I was legitimate, my documents were in order. Next the fellow said, “You need to come with us to Immigration Headquarters, also bring your traveling partner, Theodore McIntire.”

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