Greetings from the famous special block of Matrosskaya Tishina detention center — the Kremlin Central. I’d read about it in books, and now I’ve ended up here myself — such is Russian life. Basically, it looks a lot like the place where I woke up a few months ago. A small room they don’t let you leave. A window, an iron bed. True, this bed doesn’t have the motorized controls that adjust your back and legs. But at least here they’re not sticking needles with tubes into my body or hooking me up to wires (at least not yet). And people speak my native language here. A big plus. I do not regret coming back. I could not have acted otherwise, and there is no pathos, sacrifice, or fatalism in that. It was a completely rational choice. I refuse to accept the lawlessness carried out by the authorities of my country. I refuse to stay silent while listening to the shameless lies of Putin and his friends, mired in corruption. Corruption, lies, and lawlessness make every one of our lives worse, poorer, and shorter. So why should we meekly put up with it? The scoundrels entrenched in the Kremlin for more than 20 years draw a little chart every day — dividing all of us into three columns: ⁃ the brainwashed ⁃ those who understand everything, but stay silent and have resigned themselves to it ⁃ those who refuse to be silent and fight however they can. It is the third column that frightens these scoundrels. When it becomes large enough, their power will collapse. As for me, I’m simply doing everything I can to remain in that column, despite the threats, the attempted murder, and now prison. And I urge everyone else to do the same. Choose the right column 😉