John,

My heart is with the people of Ukraine. This week, Russia began an unprovoked invasion into neighboring Ukraine — with explosions reported in the capital city, Kyiv, and Ukrainian citizens taking cover from the bombings in underground metro stations.

As is always the case in war, it is the most vulnerable people among us who suffer the consequences of violence, whether militaristic or economic, while the elites and oligarchs who are responsible for these conflicts end up profiting off of them.

As an avid anti-imperialist and anti-militarist, I condemn Putin’s reckless and egregious violations of international law in the strongest possible terms, while I also urge the Biden Administration to unwaveringly pursue de-escalation of this conflict. We must focus on multilateral diplomacy and provide all possible humanitarian support to fleeing Ukrainian refugees, including opening up the United States to all asylum seekers.

The U.S. just ended the longest war in our history in Afghanistan. We must learn from our mistakes and not risk embedding ourselves in another protracted military engagement, which would surely usher in catastrophic consequences. We have seen large anti-war protests break out in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and dozens of other cities across Russia with mass arrests being reported.

Protestors are risking their safety and lives in standing up to Putin’s authoritarianism. This invasion is not the will of the Russian people, but of a small minority of elites and oligarchs who control the levers of power. Now is the time for strong U.S. material support for the people of Ukraine, and to show solidarity with the anti-war protestors all across Russia.

Now is not the time for brinkmanship, provocation, or escalation. Now more than ever, and as I’ve been saying since the start of this campaign, we need a foreign policy grounded in human rights, diplomacy, and democracy, not militarism and intervention.

If you believe, as I do, that we must avoid war with Russia, please sign this petition to support our campaign’s demand that Biden abstains from the use of military force unless expressly authorized in statute by Congress, as is enshrined in the Constitution, and to stalwartly pursue multilateral diplomacy to protect the people of Ukraine and counteract Putin’s blusterous war for power.

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Thank you for standing with us in this dark time,

- Shervin Aazami