Pope Francis “begs” Vladimir Putin to stop “the spiral of violence and death”

The camera turns on. From a distance, in front of his computer, Dmitri Tchernichev appears, ruffling his hair with one hand. “My story is quite simplehe begins. When the war broke out [le 24 février], I spent all my time in front of my screen, I barely slept two or three hours. » A well-known blogger in Russia, this professional trainer has constantly denounced the invasion “monstrous” of Ukraine until, on March 4, the police arrived at his home. First alert. Then he was arrested in the middle of the street, in Moscow, near the Maïakovskaïa metro station, where he was spotted by the facial recognition system, ubiquitous in the capital. “The police handed me over to the FSB [les services russes de sécurité]. I told them that, for me, Putin had not been president since 2008, when he usurped power. I added: “I served two years in the paratroopers in Chernobyl, Ukraine, between 1984 and 1986, to protect a reactor, no need to scare me.” »