Alexei Melnikov’s blog post at the Ekho Moskvi web-site, 31.07.2015

Probably, reasonable people, both in Russia and abroad, realize that MH17 flight was shot down by the Russian military. Probably, many people understand that the Vladimir Putin’s seizure of Crimea which launched a war against Ukraine, where a plane shot down by Putinistas was a terrible episode, is a crime even under the Russian law.

However, Putinistas probably know all this.

Therefore, the refusal of the Russian government to establish an international tribunal on the shot down Boeing which this government should stand for as the main and only defendant, it is quite clear.

But all this activity the Russian authorities did not clear off the responsibility from the Russian citizens: both those whose minds were defiled by the sordid “Crimiea-is-ours” slogan, those bearing the so-called St.George Ribbons [turned into a symbol of Putin’s supporters], as well as those oppose Vladimir Putin’s policies.

If you, citizens, have such a government in your country, then it is your responsibility. Change it, if you do not like it. And it does not matter that a person might have spoken against it, gone to rallies, etc.

Here you have a possibility to use [parliamentary] elections in 2016 and [presidential] elections in 2018 so that to ouster Vladimir Putin and his clan from power, so go to the polls and change, vote for Grigory Yavlinsky and YABLOKO. There is no other opportunity.

Whether it will work or not [no one knows for certain], but it is worth a try, as it is acting in contrast to a couch-based protest and discussions on the Internet that “it is impossible to change this government through elections”. Elections give at least some chance, but couch-based protest provides absolutely no chance.

The day when the Russian government announced a formal protest against the investigation into its activities turned into a day of Russia’s disgrace.

The revanchist “Russia’s diplomacy” soaked by cynicism and lies, and completely devoid of moral aims does not perceive it like this. And certainly the part of the Russian population those whose minds were defiled by the “Crimiea-is-ours” mantra and whose conscience was drown in the Soviet past does not perceive it like this either.

But he certainly this is a day of disgrace for those Russian citizens who believe that Russia is their country, they are responsible for everything it has been doing, and it is they who are to blame for the fact that they can not pull it out from the ocean of meanness covering Russia’s plains and mountains.

*Alexei Melnikov is YABLOKO Bureau member.

First published at http://echo.msk.ru/blog/alex_melnikov/1594394-echo/