Dmitri Yakovlev, a Muscovite who wholeheartedly supports Ukraine in her fight for freedom, argues that:

If we don’t support Ukraine, the conflict soon may become the whole world’s problem. Putin does not want this war to end. Should the world have negotiated with Hitler - Chamberlain did and what came of it? You will hear the story of Putin’s rise to power, learn interesting facts about Russian propaganda and politics, and will be invited to raise your questions.

Why is this discussion so important?

· Questions from US friends: “Why support Ukraine?

· Cost of war, who provides help and how much.

· Casualties; impact on Ukraine; impact on Russia; impact on world.

Story of post-communist Russia.

· Putin, his story. KGB and Putin’s rise to power.

· Why Putin started the war.

· Russian propaganda and how it works.

History of Ukraine.

· Crimea and Budapest Agreement.

· Zelenskyy, his story.

 Putin:

· How much of a threat is he to the world?

Supporting Ukraine:

· Why we should support Ukraine.

Dmitri is COO and co-founder of local high-tech company and works with a web development team in Ukraine.

“As I speak with members of our team in Ukraine, I often hear rocket alarms going off during our Skype conversation. To me, it’s unnerving. They simply work through it.”

For the last 30 years Dmitri has been following Russian politics, has read a number of books (most of which are now censored in Russia) and have collected extensive materials on Putin.  He follows the events of this war very closely and spend hours every day getting information on the developments from sources in English, Russian, and Ukrainian.

Since Putin’s war started, Dmitri has been helping raise funds for Ukraine to purchase power generators for local maternity and psychiatric hospitals (Russia is bombing Ukraine’s infrastructure to leave citizens without power or heat).

In 1991 Dmitri spent two nights on the barricades in Moscow streets standing up for democracy during the coup-d’etat attempt. He is a dual citizen of Russia and USA, living here since 1993. He has family in the US, Russia, and Ukraine. Dmitri was in Moscow on the day Putin started the war and saw firsthand the reaction of Muscovites: the unrest, the protests, the panic, the ugly support for Putin and his war.

Registration is required for this event.