“We, responsible citizens of Russia and patriots of our country, are appealing to the political leadership of Russia and throwing down an open and public challenge to the ‘War Party’ which has been formed within the government,” states a petition launched by the Congress of Russian Intellectuals.
The petition, reported by ‘on by the Moscow Times, whose authors include more than 100 prominent rights advocates, scientists, journalists and politicians, has received over 3,000 signatures so far.
Its authors accuse Russia’s leadership of “deceiving and using people” by promoting “only one point of view” on state-run media: “the idea of a holy war with the West instead of developing the country and raising the standard of living of its citizens.”
“But no one asks the citizens of Russia. There is no public discussion. … The question of price is not discussed, but it is ordinary people who will have to pay this price — a huge and bloody price.”
Following the United States and NATO’s responses to Russia’s security demands — which rejected its proposal to keep Ukraine out of NATO — Russian officials have said that the responses “ignored” Moscow’s key concerns but expressed a willingness to continue diplomatic dialogue.
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