Dear CCI Friends,
Thanks to Mike Metz for the continued astute observations and photos he sends as FotoJournals. We are indeed grateful that this 2019 delegation has had so many experiences to help us understand what is happening on Russia’s side of our world. It is easy to get caught up in the U.S. perspective and assume it’s the only one that exists.
It becomes our responsibility to find ways to bring these perspectives to much larger audiences across America. You can help!
Resend our emails to your business colleagues, friends and neighbors.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
Russia Redux: Donbass
By Michael Metz
The CCI tours are about listening and learning, putting yourself into others’ shoes, seeing the world from a new perspective. Today we heard from a young couple, Natasha and Sergei, newly engaged, who are visiting Moscow from war-torn Donbass in eastern Ukraine.
They tell us that the 2014 overthrow of the elected president of Ukraine was led by right-wing Ukrainian nationalists, neo-Nazis, funded by oligarchs and supported by the United States. The Donbass region, like Crimea, was made up of Russian-speaking people who opposed the coup. The new government’s first act was to outlaw the Russian language, the first language of many Ukrainians, especially in Donbass and Crimea. When people in Donbass protested, they were attacked by government forces. They fought back and, five years later, hostilities continue. The death count has been high, including 3,000 children.
Sergei fought against the new Ukrainian government. His unit captured Black Water mercenaries. They say there are no Russian soldiers helping them, though Russia provides humanitarian aid—food and medicine. They do not expect a peaceful settlement anytime soon.
This is not the story of Ukraine and Donbass reported by our western media. We came to listen and learn, to hear different perspectives, to walk however briefly in others’ shoes. These young people have allowed us that experience, though their shoes are uncomfortable to wear.