Mercy – a forgotten concept?

From “Dozhd“:

Film and theater actor Vadim Dzyuba appeared in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow with a speech in support of political prisoners, including director Yevgeny Berkovich, playwright Svetlana Petrychuk and city council member Alexei Gorinova.

The actor posted a video of his performance in the church hall on his Telegram channel in early December, but the media, and especially “Agenstvo“, have only now noticed it.

Dzyuba said that he wanted to talk about “a now forgotten concept, about showing mercy”. He recalled the fate of some poets of the early 20th century, whom he called “suffering with a capital letter”: Sergei Yesenin, Nikolai Gumilev, Osip Mendelstam and Alexander Blok. “The main thing that my beloved poets taught me is not to pass by injustice and shamefully turn away”.

“The fact is that today some poets, musicians, screenwriters, doctors, teachers and journalists have been deprived of their freedom, although they have done nothing wrong,” he said, listing the names of director Yevgeny Berkovich, screenwriter Svetlana Petrychuk, engineer Igor Baryshnikova, journalist Maria Ponomarenko and city council member Alexei Gorinova. *)

Dzyuba also mentioned those who have died in places of detention – musician and writer Pavel Kushnir and Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Rojchinaya.

“And today, in this disgusting time of informers and accusations, if not here in this church hall, in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, we should recall the evangelical words: ‘I will have mercy, and not sacrifice’ ,’” he concluded his speech.

• In a conversation with “Agenstvo”, Dzyuba said that his speech was probably his last. “I have put an end to my current employment in Russia with this statement.” But he intends to stay in Russia and has no plans to leave the country

*) several of the mentioned cases have expressed something inappropriate about the Russian army on their social media