1. Terrorism
2. Sanctions
3. Supporting my Work
4. Up Next
1. Terrorism
I'm sure you were shocked, as I was, by the murder of Vladlen Tatarsky in St Petersburg, on April 2nd. The circumstances of it all seem surreal - Vladlen was holding a creative evening, giving a presentation, talk, answering questions, on his work. A young lady calling herself 'Nastya' arrived with a heavy box, and was initially stopped at the door, by security, with some comment that she may 'have a bomb in there'. Vladlen seeing this, and apparently knowing 'Nastya' at some level, waved her through, although he clearly still had some reservations about her, and her package, and indeed, there was clearly something off. Perhaps due to these reservations, Tatarsky invited 'Nastya' to be near him, as he opened her package, which turned out to be a bust in his own image. That bust blew up shortly after Vladlen had opened it, immediately killing him, and wounding some 40 people, several of them seriously. Vladlen himself was an innocent, unarmed person, and those 40 wounded were all just people who had gone along to see a talk by a war correspondent on his work.
It's a near miracle that no one else was killed, as the blast ripped through the central St Petersburg cafe, shortly after 6pm on a Sunday evening, obliterating the inside of the cafe, and blowing windows out into the path of passing cars. As it is, we are talking about the murder of Vladlen Tatarsky, noted Russian blogger, and war correspondent, but had things been different we could be talking about the mass murder of multiple innocent civilians, in Russia's second city. This fact has not stopped the ukrainians, pro-ukrainians from celebrating this terrorist act,
'Nastya' as you know was 26-year-old opposition activist Darya Trepova, already in custody, rightly charged with the committing of terrorist act. As for Vladlen himself, there is not a lot I can say about him, he had his own style, and his own content, I was aware of his work, and his achievements in building a huge audience, and resonance, and also doing humanitarian work, deserve real respect. He was from Donbass, loved Donbass, and was enjoying his newfound popularity in Russia, giving talks, and presentations on his work. His murder, and the potential murder of any number of people attending his event, was a terrorist act, and one which clearly shows that there is no level too low for those on the ukrainian side looking to silence information.
Terrorism could also be used to describe the Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk, something which has been going on for almost 9 years now, and, last week was another brutal, bloody one, something which I have covered on my Telegram channel - https://t.me/grahamwphillips
In general, my video reportage from this period on YouTube, as ever - https://www.youtube.com/grahamphillipsuk
2. Sanctions
I remain under sanctions from the UK Government. The only way these can be overturned, and that I can return to the UK - when the job here is done - is by my defeating the British Government in the High Court, in London.
3. Supporting my Work
Sanctions, as you may already know, have shut down my own Paypal and Patreon, if you were a previous supporter of my work, and would like to support me again, let me know – I’m trying to find ways! There is also my Russian Sberbank card, and am able to accept support for my work there - Sberbank - 5469 3800 7878 9806 (Graham Phillips).
4. Up Next
Well, Spring is in the air here, Russian Easter is this weekend. I'm working on from Donbass, enjoying being / living in a place I love, and hoping for the best - progress, access to the places we want to be to give you the best reportage possible! My humanitarian work also continues, this last month saw a big delivery to to the Children's Home in Lutugino! And, so on we go, hoping, and believing in kindness, truth, and the best in everything!
Spring wishes, from Donbass,
Graham
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