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Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg on July 31 2022. Picture: REUTERS/MAXIM SHEMETOV
Alexander Arefiev’s most recent letter was as odious as the other public relations exercises by the Russian embassy that contaminate the pages of Business Day (“A history quiz”, September 4).
Like his fellow apparatchiks, Arefiev seems to assume that the SA public is as ignorant as many of his Russian compatriots, who are denied sources of information apart from the Kremlin. In Russia you could be sent to prison for calling the war against Ukraine what it is: a war.
Only an ignoramus, or maybe members of our government, would believe the brutal invasion of Ukraine is a “military operation” aimed at “denazifying” a country where Russian speakers are oppressed in a “genocide”.
More and more Russian speakers in Ukraine are turning against Russia after its destruction of cities and killing of civilians. They have seen what it means to be “protected” by Vladimir Putin, as have many Russians in Russia.
Prof Gerrit Viljoen Brixton
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Putin’s odious apparatchik
Alexander Arefiev’s most recent letter was as odious as the other public relations exercises by the Russian embassy that contaminate the pages of Business Day (“A history quiz”, September 4).
Like his fellow apparatchiks, Arefiev seems to assume that the SA public is as ignorant as many of his Russian compatriots, who are denied sources of information apart from the Kremlin. In Russia you could be sent to prison for calling the war against Ukraine what it is: a war.
Only an ignoramus, or maybe members of our government, would believe the brutal invasion of Ukraine is a “military operation” aimed at “denazifying” a country where Russian speakers are oppressed in a “genocide”.
More and more Russian speakers in Ukraine are turning against Russia after its destruction of cities and killing of civilians. They have seen what it means to be “protected” by Vladimir Putin, as have many Russians in Russia.
Prof Gerrit Viljoen
Brixton
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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