Aleksandr Skobov
Journalist and historian, former Soviet dissident Alexandre Skobov, imprisoned since 2 April 2024, is currently being tried for his political convictions. He is accused of "terrorism". Desk Russie publishes his statement via videoconference from Syktyvkar prison, during the hearing at the 1st Military Court of the Western District on 17 January 2024.
I was raised in the Soviet Union with the belief that when a cruel and malevolent aggressor attacks innocent civilians, one must take up arms and go fight. And if one cannot bear arms oneself, then one must help those who fight and encourage others to do so.
All my journalistic activity is a call to fight the aggressor who attacked Ukraine and to help the aggressed country with weapons and ammunition. I consider myself a participant in the armed struggle against this aggressor. In the rockets and shells that destroy the invaders, there is also my small contribution. And I take responsibility for every occupier eliminated.
Russia was not attacked by anyone, it was not threatened by anyone. It is Putin's Nazi regime that attacked Ukraine. Solely in the name of the megalomania of its leaders, and their inhuman thirst for domination over everything around them.
They assert their power by killing hundreds of thousands of people. They are degenerates, dregs of humanity, Nazi scum.
The guilt of Putin's Nazi dictatorship in preparing, triggering and conducting a war of aggression is obvious and requires no proof. Similarly, our right to armed resistance against this aggressor, whether on the battlefield or from within its territory, requires no justification. But it would be laughable to expect such recognition from a regime that throws people in prison simply because they expressed moral condemnation of the aggression. All possibilities for legal protest against the aggression of Putin's Russia have been annihilated.
My calls for armed resistance against the power of the aggressor are qualified as acts of terrorism. I will not contest the accusations from the aggressor's authorities, even if they decide to qualify my actions as acts of paedophilia. Justice in Russia has long since proved that it is merely an appendage of a Nazi tyranny, and it is useless to seek any objectivity in its decisions. I will never stand before these people – the servants of murderers and villains. I have nothing to debate with the puppets of the dictatorship about how they apply their laws. In any case, these laws are those of a totalitarian state, designed to repress dissent. I do not recognise these laws and I will not submit to them. Let weapons speak for me.
I will also not appeal against the decisions or actions of the representatives of Nazi power. I do not seek mercy from my armed opponent.
Putin's dictatorship can kill me, but it will never be able to force me to give up fighting against it. Wherever I am, I will continue to call on honest Russians to join the Ukrainian armed forces, I will continue to call for strikes on military targets deep within Russian territory. I will continue to urge the civilised world to inflict a strategic defeat on Nazi Russia. I will continue to prove the necessity of the military crushing of the new Hitler's regime.
Putin is the new Hitler, he is intoxicated by his impunity, he is a bloodthirsty monster. And I will not cease to repeat: Crush the vermin!
Death to Putin, murderer, tyrant and villain! Death to the Russian fascist invaders! Glory to Ukraine!
Translated from Russian by Desk Russie