Open letter of The Collective of Vineyardsaker.fr and Vineyardsaker.ru Publishers to the Russian and Russian Speaking People

Russian and russian speaking friends, welcome to you all!

We, people who are living in the west, we salute you. And we are delighted, really delighted, to at last be able to say to you, "NO, NOT EVERYONE FROM US IS AGAINST YOU."

And it is very important to us that you get to know it, that you are convinced of it, that you understand that here, for example in France, but not only in France, there are many of us, and increasingly, that are in complete disagreement with what our "leaders" say and do "in our name." Which may sound but normal course to you, but think of it though, is for many around here quite a small feat, considering what has been the massive propaganda of our Western media – of all, absolutely all the mainstream media – for several decades. Considering that your president and other leaders of Russia we are presented only – and systematically, and repeatedly –as undemocratic monsters and calculating ones, as attackers only motivated by evil intentions towards us.

YES, THE CAUSE OF DONBASS AND UKRAINE WE CARE ABOUT. And much more than that: we tremble every day for Novorossia; oftentimes we are overcome with anger and sorrow when contemplating the atrocities committed there, when hearing such lies as our "politicians" utter to absolve them even if they do not encourage them. Another small feat actually, given that Novorossia does not exist, at least neither for our media nor for our leaders, but only the eastern Ukraine, a place where everything would be fine, we are explained, if it were not that some fierce separatists keep being rife there in a maliciously inclined way towards Europe. And given also that it happens almost nothing in that country (I say almost because, if we believe our newspapers, or our radios, or our TV channels, it reads and sounds like it is simply a matter of one single Putin, a new Hitler, who is deceitfully intriguing to impose on the poor Ukraine as on the entire world an unjustified aggression and a tyrannical Russian domination).

Did you say a war? In the Ukraine? That can’t be: our official media do not mention anything like that. A total blackout. Except a threat of a Russian military aggression (nothing new, indeed) and of course some measures being taken (nothing out of the ordinary) only to restore order threatened by virulent separatists in some provinces. That's how things are presented to us.

Many of us actually have no idea what is happening there. Word-of-mouth progresses though. And sites like the Saker’s one increasingly contribute to open the eyes and minds of those who seek, those who bother to go and have a look behind the official information, to get around such propaganda and brainwashing as are imposed on us.

This is primarily the reason why the mirror site in French language was wanted, and why we chose to contribute voluntarily: to provide information that is missing; to sound a different story; to refute the lies that our compatriots are showered with day after day.

And this is also why we welcome the birth of this Russian-speaking site. And the possibility that we are (finally!) given to assure you – despite the efforts of those who govern us (and the efforts of their masters, even more to the west), despite all those who are struggling to try to establish and consolidate between us and you a kind of enmity that has no reason to be - not only that we are not against Russia or against the Russians, but that we instead understand that your enemy is also our enemy. To this enemy we refuse to associate. And we do not accept the present situation by which it seeks to impose lie and antagonism.

Our institutions and many other things unfortunately are under its control. But our minds are not. And, most of all, our hearts are not either!

The collective of vineyardsaker.fr and vineyardsaker.ru publishers