“The most important people” is a stupid expression. How are you even supposed to define them? Everyone is important, and it’s impossible to weigh all the factors that determine a person’s importance. In peacetime. But now, I think it’s fair to say that the most important people on the planet are those who have taken to the streets in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities for anti-war protests — and will do so again. The fastest way to stop the deranged maniac Putin now is for the people of Russia to come out against the war. And this is a hard marathon. A war of attrition. Against fear and arrests. But this is absolutely not a futile struggle. Not a symbolic gesture of despair. Look even at the official, court-approved polling. They say 71% are for the war, 29% against it. Even if we believe that, it means that from the outset, the anti-war movement had the support of one in three people. And that was before the war hit us too — with sanctions and economic catastrophe. Before the war’s greatest horror — coffins carrying sons back to their mothers. I’m telling you this as a TV viewer. Not even the official Russian army casualty figure — 498 people — was mentioned on television a single time. The picture of events painted by Putin’s propaganda is this: there are almost no dead on either side, the Ukrainian army has scattered, there is almost no destruction, in a few places “bands of Nazis” are holed up, but they will soon be wiped out. Ukrainians are greeting Russian tanks with flowers. This picture of the world — even in the minds of the dumbest and most stubborn — does not have long left to live. Everything — from prices in the shops to the sobbing neighbor whose relative vanished for nothing while trying to kill an innocent person — will be a reminder that a senseless slaughter is underway. That the senile madman Putin is now destroying Ukraine and ruining Russia. And at that moment, everyone who has opened their eyes must understand: I’m not the only one who thinks this way. From the very beginning, 29% were against the war, and now it’s the majority. There are people I can join. I, too, will go out into the street against the war. I will force Putin to stop it. That is why we have no right to stop this exhausting marathon. We need to go out to anti-war protests every weekend, even if it seems that everyone has either left or become afraid. Even if you are all alone, you are someone others can join. You are the foundation of the movement against war and death. You are the most important person on the planet. March 13, 2:00 p.m., the main square of your city.