Perspectives through the looking glass

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Ordinary Russian citizens have long been denied press freedoms that many enjoy as a matter of daily life in other parts of the world. The invasion of Ukraine brought more impositions of embargoes and sanctions from all sides, and communications to the world outside Russia have really deteriorated.

I just happened to be thinking about this while looking in the bathroom mirror brushing my teeth, and began wondering about Through The Looking Glass — a children’s story written by Lewis Carroll about 150 years ago. Gazing at my reflection, I imagined a counterpart in Russia and wondered what his opinions may be. Ordinary Russians are never interviewed for Western audiences, so I allowed my imagination to go to work through the looking glass.

Google translated my name to Bephn Kuznets in Russian, then envisaged a retired deep-sea freighter captain, widowed and in his eighth decade, living near the Black Sea tanker port of Novorossiysk. Communication was easy with my imaginary counterpart, who expressed gratitude to freely chat to someone from abroad, just like in his days sailing the seven seas.

Kapitan Kuznets stated how he detested the war involving his countrymen, but blamed all sides for failure to negotiate before the first shots were fired at Ukraine. He noted quite bitterly that a direct line can be drawn back to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, when there were 15 countries belonging to NATO, whose de facto leader was always the USA. Kapitan Kuznets figured that NATO’s expanding its member states ever closer to the Russian border ,as it doubled to 31 countries at present, was seen as direct provocation by Russian leadership. He drew a comparison to the defeat of Germany in World War I, when the victors continued squeezing Germany until it exploded in a second World War just 20 years later. He noted how things were different at the end of that war when defeated Germany and Japan were given every assistance to rebuild peacefully.

Kapitan Kuznets found many faults in his country’s leadership, but cryptically acknowledged the old Cold Warrior in the Oval Office, who may have big plans to be president of the United States of America and Europe. Interesting observations through the looking glass, indeed.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada