Today on the homepage, I conclude my series on Vladimir Kara-Murza, the Russian democracy leader who has been poisoned twice — and twice escaped death. He is only in his mid-thirties, but he has already experienced a lot (obviously). And he has a great deal to say. He says some of it in this series of ours.
In today’s installment, he addresses the question, What is a patriot? In the Russian context, particularly? Also, why is Ukraine important? In the Russian context, that is? And, is it true that Putin is popular? What about his Western supporters? Etc.
After he recovers from the latest poisoning — the latest murder attempt — Kara-Murza is going back to Russia, to struggle on. (At the moment, he’s in the U.S.) We talk about this a bit.
Before I left him, when we met the other week, I told him that he was astounding, for persisting despite the risks. (His closest colleague, Boris Nemtsov, was murdered in 2015.) He would not accept my assessment, or my compliment. He said — more than once — “I’m just stubborn.”
(From such stubbornness, progress is made, often.)