Comment for “The Russian People, Abandoning Their Authoritarian Homeland, and Their Feelings Toward Ukraine” [in Japanese]
On April 26, 2023, Asahi Shimbun introduced a comment by Professor Maiko Ichihara, GGR researcher and professor of the Graduate School of Law at Hitotsubashi University. The professor commented on the article “The Russian People, Abandoning Their Authoritarian Homeland, and Their Feelings Toward Ukraine.” This article tells the story of a Russian who made an illustration critical of President Putin after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequently defected to Serbia for safety reasons. Professor Ichihara commented that those who, as Russians, opposed Putin’s war were taken into custody, forced to flee abroad under suspicion or abandon their nationality, and that their suffering is unimaginable. The professor also assessed that the outflow of Russian intellectuals abroad due to the war and the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO are indicative of the negative effects of dictatorships.
