“Russia is drowning in a pool of blood.” Navalny’s last word on the “extremism” trial.

Why not? Maybe you put on these masks because you are afraid of something human, what you have and what can be reflected on your face not covered with a balaclava? For example, the prison warden who is behind me now should know from his position what courts I will have to appear before. And so I explain to him about the next criminal case and the upcoming trial, about the new date that threatens me. Each time he nods, closes his eyes, and says, “I don’t understand you and never will.” I should try to explain it to him.

The question of how to act is the main question of humanity. After all, everything around is so complicated and so incomprehensible. People are jumping off their feet looking for a recipe for the right thing to do. You’re looking for something you can rely on to make decisions.

I really like the formulation of our compatriot, a doctor of philology, professor Łotman. Speaking to students, he once said, “Man is always in an unforeseen situation. And here it has two legs: conscience and intellect.

I think that’s a very smart idea. And a person must lean on both of these legs.

Relying solely on conscience is intuitively correct. But an abstract morality that does not take into account human nature and the real world will turn into either stupidity or cruelty, as has happened many times before.

But reliance on intelligence without conscience is now the heart of the Russian state. Initially, the idea seemed logical to the elites. Using oil, gas and other resources, we will build an unscrupulous, but cunning, modern, rational, ruthless state. We will become richer than the kings of yesteryear. And we have so much oil that the population will get something. By exploiting a world of contradictions and the fragility of democracy, we will become leaders and be respected. And if not, then be afraid.

But the same thing happens everywhere. Intellect, unlimited by conscience, whispers: take, steal. If you are stronger, your interests are always more important than the rights of others.