Then how come everyone else isn't there. These couples chose to go.
Hypothetically? Government is surveilling people for social media and other activity (email, phone calls). Someone says something/ does something that the regime does not agree with and the regime issues a different this or else threat to put in an appearance to “prove their loyalty.” People who didn’t say anything at all or who have already expressed support are left alone.
No, we don’t know these people, but same time, in this situation, being forced into this or otherwise coerced is a very real possibility.
Read the bbc article. State employees were forced to attend. Students were told if they attended this concert, they’d get a day off of lectures without being told what this was really going to be about.
Quoting this again:
Many told the BBC they worked in the public sector, and that they had been pressured into attending by their employers.
One man who works in the Moscow metro, told us that he and other employees had been forced to attend the rally.
"I'll be here for a while and then I'll leave… I think most people here don't support the war. I don't," he said.
Many people didn't want to be filmed or answer questions.
Students told us they had been given the option of a day off from lectures if they attended "a concert". Some of the students we spoke to didn't even know that the event was dedicated, in part, to support the war in Ukraine.
are you implying that the athletes who were there was pressured to be there to "prove" they are good patriotic citizens. because they have been given other signals?
I wonder why 2x silver medalists were there, and not Scherbekova, a OGM.
in any case, the whole thing is disgusting.
I think it’s one possibility given the things that go on in dictatorships. Russia does not want its citizens accessing or communicating with the outside world, particularly and especially if it’s a source or person communicating about what’s really going on in Ukraine.
Scherbekova has posted nothing at all one way or the other about the war. So, if this was about a punishment or making an example… she’d be in the clear.
There were athletes other than skaters there. Have any of those athletes posted anything anti-war.
I don’t follow the other sports that closely. I did see a tweet where someone thought it was interesting the particular gymnast who were there were the ones there rather than ones have been very outspokenly pro-Putin.
Regardless, it is sickening either way. If this was forced as a punishment for following some social media accounts from non-Russians posting about the war or accessing information from outside of Russia…. That says a lot about the situation there in a context even more broad than this. I know my friend who had the friend in Russia is communicating with the friend over telegram but still using sekret code because they’re terrified of the government finding things… and this friend is just a woman who has a dog and a cat, an Etsy business, and teaches Russian language lessons over zoom. She’s a nobody.
imgur.com
