Distinguished persons of the week: They speak to and for Russians

From article: No one should think such messages can be kept from Russians. Russia is not North Korea. As The Post reports, “In the weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine and imposed new laws penalizing speech that knocked major news sites offline, Russians have flocked to the app stores, tech workers there said.” They are downloading “virtual private networks for connecting across borders and such messaging apps as Telegram, WhatsApp and Threema, all of which are major ways of sharing unapproved news.” This new media, combined with old technology such as shortwave radio, can provide uncensored news to a significant number of Russians. Meanwhile, hackers continue to wreak havoc with Russian state media. The Post reports: “Wednesday evening, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry website was defaced by hackers, who altered its content. Notably, the hack replaced the department hotline with a number for Russian soldiers to call if they want to defect from the army — under the title ‘Come back from Ukraine alive.’” Truth and personal agency are despots’ kryptonite. Messages such as those from Ovsyannikova, Schwarzenegger and the army of pro-democracy hackers are spreading across Russia, overwhelming a desperate and humiliated regime. To them we can say, well done. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/18/why-arnold-schwarzenegger-told-russia-stop-war-ukraine/

How Putin’s mistakes rallied his enemies

This is no cause for complacency. Putin can still inflict enormous damage, particularly on the people of Ukraine. Holding firm against him will be costly, and unity against him in the West could fray. He will certainly try to sow divisions among and within the democracies. Party strife is one of freedom’s inevitable byproducts. Western voters will be tempted to see the showdown in Ukraine as, in Neville Chamberlain’s infamous phrase, “a quarrel in a faraway country.” Nonetheless, it’s not outlandish to hope that Russian citizens, including some among its elites, will eventually tire of the isolation bred by their leader’s misadventures and misjudgments — especially if he drags his country into a large and costly land war. If the West remains patient and determined, Putin could yet reap the whirlwind at home. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/23/putin-ukraine-russian-overreach-his-own-undoing/