Index on Censorship weekly round-up
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Friday, 15 December 2023
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Damage in Kyiv following a Russian missile strike. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine
The world’s focus has shifted to Israel-Gaza, but Vladimir Putin’s focus has not shifted away from Ukraine. Instead, rather than ending the year on a positive note, the situation there looks increasingly grim. This week we handed our newsletter over to regular Index contributor John Sweeney, who has just returned to London from Kyiv. He reminds us of the ongoing war and of the generosity of Ukrainians. Also read our CEO Ruth Anderson’s blog today ([link removed]) on Putin’s latest efforts to silence the Russian individuals standing up to him.
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** Kyiv blues
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The man-beetle in Kafka’s Metamorphosis had it easy. Lie flat out in a hospital bed with six staples in your knee, add Russian hypersonic missiles coming at you at 2,000 metres a second, and, well, it’s a bit fruity.
One of my doctors pops in for a laugh at my blue and yellow toenails and explains that they are going to have to put my gammy leg in a paramedics’ half-splint because Polish truckers, led by far-right pro-Kremlin politicians, have blocked the border for a month and the hospital has run out of proper splints.
If this is happening to me, you can bet a billion roubles it’s happening to hundreds of Ukrainians, soldiers who have lost limbs, kids hit by Russian rockets or debris from air defence. So the dark story of Europe is rewritten, once again, in broken skin and bone: Ukraine, bold and brave, is staring defeat in the face because of the failure of the democratic West to deliver aid to counter Russian fascism. Worse, the Kremlin’s useful idiots in the West are undermining our ability to lessen Ukraine’s agony. Fuck you: Polish truckers, MAGA Republicans, Hungarian neo-fascists etc.
It’s hard to convey just how nice Ukrainians are, how generous they are in a time of real hardship. Sasha took me to hospital, fixed everything; Dasha gave me enough fruit to set up a stall in New Covent Garden; Max, a bottle of rum and a ton of jokes; a major told me that the war is changing so fast, soon the only things left at the front will be drones and mine-throwers and infantry; Mylana giggles, then tells me how she misses her father so, a clown who had a heart attack after his neighbourhood was hit three times.
Time to return to Blighty. Max takes me to the station, puts me on the train. After a long, long day we arrive at Przemyśl in eastern Poland. I ask someone to get a porter, to carry my suitcase and bags to the passport barrier. Dima, a total stranger and a Ukrainian, says: “I’ll do it and I don’t want any money.”
There’s a long queue and the Ukrainians allow Dima and I to pass to the front. Immediately ahead a Polish border guard, tall, pompous, is scowling at a Ukrainian grandmother who answers his banal and stupid questions with great timidity while hundreds wait and wait and wait.
This summed it up: the West wallows in easeful comfort while Ukraine bleeds and Russia kills.
I hobble homewards, go to the Wimbledon panto with my kids and granddaughter – Craig Revel Horwood’s Great Dame is less camp than Putin during his talkathon – and I weep at the terrible jokes. Not because they are that funny. But because of my sorrow for where I have just escaped from.
John Sweeney, Index on Censorship contributor
** Hacking is far more than a security issue. It chills free speech
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Civil society has become a significant target for Russia’s state backed hackers. Photo: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The British and US governments have just jointly sanctioned two Russian intelligence operatives for their attempts to derail the democratic process through a series of coordinated cyber attacks. The US State Department is also offering a reward of up to $10 million for information on the Russian hackers responsible for the coordinated cyber espionage attack, which is international and spans several years. Targets even included the former MI6 director Richard Dearlove, and more recently scientists at several nuclear facilities in the United States. But what distinguishes this recent wave of Russian cyberattacks is that they are not just targeting governments or politicians. Read Emma Briant's article here ([link removed]) .
** Putin’s control threatens Russian dissident voices
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Putin wants total control. Photo: rajatonvimma /// VJ Group Random Doctors
Whilst war rages in Ukraine it is easy to lose sight of those saying loudly that the Russian state doesn’t act in their name, writes our CEO Ruth Anderson in her weekly blog ([link removed]) .
** Win one of our exclusive prizes with our
2023 Moments of Freedom campaign
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A signed copy of Paul Caruana Galizia's poignant and powerful account of his mother's death is just one of the many exclusive prizes on offer for those taking part in our year-end competition. Help us choose the most inspiring moment of freedom from the past 12 months and be in with a chance of winning. Vote now here ([link removed]) .
[link removed] removal of juries in High Court defamation actions is one of many proposed reforms put forward by the Irish government in the draft scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill earlier this year, but it has quickly emerged as one of the most divisive. Many experts contest the benefits of removing juries from defamation proceedings, arguing that they are too important a democratic institution to do away with. Read our new report on the issue ([link removed]) .
** From the Index archives
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** "Humpty Dumpty has maybe had the last word"
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** by Sir Tom Stoppard
Spring 2022
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One of the big stories this week was the cancellation of Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen for writing an essay comparing Gaza to the Nazi-era ghettoes. Last year, long-time Index supporter Sir Tom Stoppard shared his own thoughts ([link removed]) in the magazine on cancelling those with dissenting opinion.
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