from the Russian

I was reading an interview with an elderly Russian woman. It must have been a month or so ago, so, quite recent (in Le Monde newspaper). The interviewer kept in the background – not one of those who presume Russian people can speak openly anywhere at any time, to anyone – and let her speak.Or edited the exchange properly. I have tied to explore ideas, attitudes, responses, here.Fiction writers will I think recognise the tactic of using the real to explore the fictional ‘Her closing remarks have stayed with me.What she said about the current situation in Russia was something like… it’s in translation, remember… “You can’t do anything, you can’t say anything, all you can do is watch it happening.” This is really the hardest thing to do, to watch and know there’s nothing you can do.It certainly separates out the adults from the children. You can play dress-up in black at UK ports, desperately needing to do somethingYou can demonstrate in crowds of people who succumb to the crowd-mind and…