"My pebble on the scales." Ex -employee of Navalny’s headquarters returned to Russia to collect signatures against war

A former employee of Navalny’s headquarters in Kaliningrad, an IT-marketing manager Ivan Lusin in March, along with his family, went to Poland, fearing a persecution for his last political activity. On January 29, he returned to Russia to conduct an anti -war campaign “Enough, stuck!”: The activist plans to collect the signatures of Russians under the appeal to withdraw troops from Ukraine and send them by mail to Vladimir Putin. Mediazona asked Luzina if he was not afraid to be in prison for his position and why he believes that his little initiative can change something.

I was an employee of the headquarters of Alexei Navalny before the headquarters closed. Then he tried to participate in the elections, but they took me off them. The Constitutional Court, in my opinion, admitted this summer that everything was fine in terms of legality.

I left Russia with my family in March. On February 24, in Kaliningrad there was to be a rally against the war. I went to him. I rode in the minibus, went out - and I was taken away, respectively, I did not get to the rally. I received 25 days [arrest], it was my second day, for the first time after the rally in support of Navalny in April 2021 I received 21, and the second time - 25.

After he was released, in a matter of days he went to Poland. Not only because of the war-he decided to leave earlier, after Lily was imprisoned.

Now I have returned to Russia for a while, rather, a week. Surely less than a month in order to, in fact, do what I need in the framework of this small project.

What Luzin is going to ask for the President of Russia:

1. Stop the shelling of the territory of Ukraine by the Armed Forces of Russia. In particular, to stop missile and artillery strikes on the objects of the energy and other infrastructure of Ukraine.

2. Start negotiations with the Ukrainian authorities in order to cease to fire on the contact line. “Since the leaders of Ukraine express fears that the ceasefire will be used by our armed forces only to prepare for new attacks, it is necessary to remove these fears with real actions - a decrease in the number of our armed forces in areas at the contact line, their withdrawal from the territory of Belarus,” said Luzin.

3. To attract international organizations (in particular, the UN) and the peacekeeping contingent in the territory that are currently controlled by Russia, and until 2014 were controlled by the Ukrainian authorities to ensure the safety of people living there.

4. Exchange "detainees during his" citizens of Russia and Ukraine on the principle of "all for all."

There is one side why I decided to come, it concerns the fact that some actions need to be taken in the sense of sending letters, because it is not very good to write online. We have such a wonderful open system for contacting the organs that CTRL+C and CTRL+V does not allow to use. Well, at least now this project is organized so that letters will be sent offline. Accordingly, I will send them.

The second point is ethical: despite the fact that the appeals are legal, fixed in the law and are directly allowed, it seems that everything changes so quickly and begins to become a reason for the attention of the security forces, so some risks of signing appeals arise. And it seems to me that if you invite a person on his own behalf to do something that you consider correct, correctly at least partially divide these risks with this person.

I am afraid of persecution and try to avoid this. I'm not an idiot. I understand: I left the country because they can come for me, and I do not think that it has changed dramatically. Partly, I may reassure myself that now it is not in the interests of law enforcement officers to come for me, because it, on the contrary, will attract attention and interest in circulation. Yes, of course, I am in the know [criminal cases]. I know about Yashin , Gorinov and many others. Again, with a complacency, perhaps it is that I, as far as possible, as far as patience is enough, I try to avoid formulations that can be interpreted as “fakes” about the army.

In the appeal, no matter how difficult it is to write this, the wording of “Svo” is used, that this is not the basis for me for some sanctions, and in relation to those people who sign this appeal.

My loved ones to the decision to go to Russia reacted rather painfully, and in this part I am to blame. Well, this is great stress. Yes, they tried to dissuade, worry, and this is ugly in relation to the family.

I know that there was already a petition of Leo Ponomarev, in my opinion, with more than 1,000 200 signatures. But the fact that there were already such initiatives and this still has not brought the result does not mean that this does not work and cannot act.

When, for example, immediately after the start of the war, people signed petitions, there was one situation. Now the situation in the country and the front is different. That is, if society has already tried it, and so, and so, does not mean that now you need to finish this topic. I see that there are anti -war initiatives, and I have the feeling that they are more likely to be activated in recent months, but are declining. This is not good. It seems that the pressure of the anti -war society should continue. Well, accordingly, it seems to me that my little initiative is a pebble for this scales.

If we say that Putin reads [appeals], grabs his head and says: “What I have done, there is a ready plan, let's act on it,” then no, I don’t think so. I doubt that this will pass the filter of the presidential administration, this is extremely unlikely. Can it take this and stop the war? No. Can this have an influence with some other factors? Well, some small-maybe. Yes, I think so.

I am going to send letters separately from each signator. If suddenly it turns out that I can not digest such [large] number of letters, I will be glad of this. It will be possible to somehow adjust the concept.

I don’t know, to be honest, how many letters have already been signed, at the time when I looked in that country, there were 17 of them. How much now, I don’t know - I specially do not have the opportunity to quickly track. I just cut myself off from this.

I will send letters as it enters, I will not wait for a number. The address [on the envelope] will be one at all, and the name will probably be signator. I will send on my own behalf too.

Yesterday I called to Kaliningraders to sign a letter in a bar, wrote about it in a telegram channel. But no one came to the meeting, because the announcement of this was actually at the last moment. At the very end, in fact, at eight in the evening, two employees in uniform went, looked around, went to the bar’s rack, asked something and left. I went out too. They stood on the street, I counted three more at the bar in civilian clothes. Well, yes, I’m sure that these people came to control, if there is any mass event here.

The security forces have not yet shown interest in me - either I manage to be so inconspicuous, or nobody really needs me for now. Nevertheless, I hope that they do not know where to call.

Editor: Maria Klimova