you know that shit really hit the fan when people get mass arrested in the west southern russia. for all of you outsiders, here is a little poli-historic note about people in the russian south and northern caucasus specifically: we are officially the most pro-government, pro-putin people in russia. life here is fairly easy. we are also the most state funded region.
you know how you get so loved by your government? how they earn our “love” in return? well one day you can just disappear after being pronounced “a boyevik” or a terrorist. one day you decide that you dont want to live you life being scared all the time, then you get killed, then maybe your family also gets killed, but you won’t know that, because you already would be rotting somewhere in a forest. this often gets overlooked by other russians because of very islamophobic image of “a terrorist”, it is enough to say that someone was a terrorist and that got them killed and nobody will look further into that.
you have to actively choose to either love your government and obey the police or try to change something locally and constantly get arrested and one day get assassinated. you can also run away and depending on what you’ve already done your parents might not even be murdered by the time you change your name.
honestly what i am saying is keep the same energy you had for southern usa states voting blue for southern russian opposition that doesn’t get the right to vote fairly.
you can donate to ovd-info here
you can also donate to russian lgbt network here. i am obviously very partial to their lgbt+ of chechnya campaign
US $1 = RUS ₽75 so even small help goes a long way
maybe ask your russian friend how are they doing