Invasion Day +53 There are interesting strands of subtle resistance appearing in the press of late and we echo them here. In the letters we hear of the efforts to 'Call Russia' by dialling into a database of 40 million Russian telephone numbers. If you know of anyone who speaks Russian and we do know a few here, then please direct them to this information and see if they will join that campaign?
In line with our aim to align with others on the same mission as mentioned in yesterday's blog post we also echo Alexei Navalny's call to help open an 'information front' against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Navalny says that hundreds of thousands of Russians are seeking to circumvent the state bans on social media by using what are known as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). His call is to flood Russia with 'Stories, posts and pre-rolls. Across Russia, in cities and villages. On every tablet and every phone.'
If you are at IT person and even if not, please join with us in the trenches of the 'Information Front.' However we can reach these networks let us try and do so? Please let us know if you have ways in and please keep the stories coming in, every little helps.
Meanwhile, slight signs of progress towards peace may be appearing. Several of our correspondents have expressed allegiance to the International Police Association, themselves working quietly away in the background for peace and justice across the world. We hear that in Russia some police officers and units have refused Putin's desperate clamour for replacement troops for the terrible losses he has sustained, and have refused to fight in Ukraine. Added to the numbers who have already refused to fight in the Russian armed forces and likewise those in Belarus, it is possible mutiny and discontent may be spreading. If we hear more we will of course share it in the blog. Please keep writing: you are all great and loyal peace campaigners in a growing community here. Impressive! Hoggy.
Today's Letters:
From D.B. Lewis. Director, Bryn Stowe Publications, North Yorkshire
Dear Hoggy,
'Calling Russia'
Firstly, thank you very much for publicising the book 'Sunflowers for Ukraine' which many of your correspondents have contributed to, it is a worthy vehicle for the donation of support to the fund you have started and we are very pleased to have lent you our Number Two (Charities) Account for the purpose. We have already distributed 180 copies since publication on Thursday and will continue to do so.
I would also like to nominate the following, Paulius Senuta, a business man from Lithuania. He is organising a mass phone campaign to speak to Russians in Russia to provide them with a different narrative to Putin's continual lies. Senuta's work is a major non-violent contribution to the peace effort with the aim of creating enough resistance to Putin that he will be downed from within.
It will take time but evil will lose, and the cost may be great with our freedom and our lives depending on the awesome and humbling sacrifice of the brave. These are all Ukrainians save a small minority of misguided, selfish and blinded individuals, but also those Russians who are also fighting for Freedom against Putin's tyranny. They also need our support.
I therefore would like to nominate Paulius Senuta for a Hogsward.
Al wishes for this impactive blog.
David,
D.B. Lewis
Bryn Stowe Publications
North Yorkshire
Dear David,
Thank you for your comments and continued support.
We definitely agree with your nomination and quote from current press articles on his work, thanking those sources for the use.
Hogsward: Paulius Senuta
(Hogswards No. 21)
With all due thanks to © DELFI / Kiril Čachovski used under common access arrangements for personal blogs.
(We are also grateful to Tomas Kauneckas, writer Sheena Goodyear and CBC Radio for the content of the following article.)
Paulius Senuta is the CEO of a company called 'Not Perfect Companies based in Lithuania. He is also one of the organisers of the 'Call Russia' project, a movement encouraging people around the world to call Russians by telephone and attempt to tell then the truth of what is happening in Ukraine to counter state propaganda about the war.
In an interview on CBC Radio, Paulius Senuta said the idea of getting thousands of volunteers to call Russians and tell them what's happening in Ukraine is based on a very simple premise.
"I fundamentally believe that most people agree that killing other people is not good," the Vilnius, Lithuania, man told As It Happens guest host Gillian Findlay. "That is a game changer to swing the sentiment, we think, of most people."
The 'Call Russia' project, encourages Russian speakers around the world to dial a random Russian resident in an effort to counter the state narrative about the invasion of Ukraine.
The project has published a database of 40 million numbers of Russian individuals and a guide on what to say during a conversation. Senuta says volunteers logged around 81,000 calls over six days.
"There's a massive support for Putin and for his adventures in Ukraine that is based on the fact that people don't know what is happening," Senuta said.
"This thing we are trying to do is convey information and the human tragedy that is in the Ukraine."
We think every effort to bring peace should be acknowledged and so we agree, Paulius Senutu is a worthy recipient of a Hogwards today ad we spread sunflowers in his name.
Best wishes to you all at Bryn Stowe.
Hoggy.
From Janet Fizz Curtis, in Germany
Dear Hoggy,
As it is Easter I have painted this stone with a sunflower. I hope this small gesture can be posted as a token of support for all those in Ukraine.
We are in Germany at present where the support for the refugees is massive.
Best wishes for now,
Fizz.
Dear Fizz,
It is great, thank you and a welcome sight to the eyes as a relief for us all as the second major phase of this terrible war looms large.
The war has never gone away of course with daily Russian missile and air strikes against military and civilian targets alike. How that brave population of Mariupol have survived into the fifty-fourth day is an incredible feat of human endurance on the one side against total evil of indescribable barbarity on the other. Long will the bravery of Mariupol be etched into the world's psyche along with Aleppo, Groznyy, and all the other cities who have suffered from Putin's continued atrocity.
Thank you for the stone, as you say, a gift for Easter, gratefully received.
Hoggy
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