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Certainly Grotskov subscribes to such views. When we met close to some of the fiercest fighting in the deadly battlegrounds south of Izyum, he told me about the personal journey that led him to take up arms against his nation’s forces.
His awakening began 11 years ago when pro-democracy protests erupted across Russia following ballot-rigging and fraud to fix the success of Putin’s party in parliamentary elections.
Grotskov joined small demonstrations in his home town of Kandalaksha after discovering a video posted by Alexei Navalny – the anti-corruption campaigner who has since survived a poisoning attack and been jailed.
The video, based on documents obtained by Navalny, exposed how billions of pounds were stolen from an oil pipeline project by one of Putin’s closest cronies.
Grotskov said: ‘I was shocked by the scale of corruption and injustice that was organised at the highest level. I started to look into the political and economic situation and realised that we need to fight this regime.’.
The soldier, whose family remain in Russia, began putting up posters and joining protests. But after Putin illegally seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, he decided it was immoral to pay taxes to fund a thieving and toxic dictatorship. ‘I’ve always been the kind of person who wants to fight for justice,’ he said. ‘I left for Ukraine because I knew the hottest spot of fighting Putin’s imperial regime is here in this country.’ Initially he intended to set up an online project with friends inside Russia to spread information about corrupt state officials, expose the government’s failure to prosecute them and encourage the imposition of stricter Western sanctions.
He explained: ‘They have fun, spend the money, have businesses abroad. I wanted to make sure that they would not be allowed into the West. The brainwashing has been going on for decades.’
So it’s over for Russia, again! /s