Mikhail Yefremov: I don't Russia to be feared and hated

A famous Russian actor speaks against the Kremlin's aggressive action.

The website uapress.info quotes Mikhail Yefremov:

“I can say what I don't like in the world,” the honourary artist of Russia says. “I don't like hypocrisy. I don't like lie and rudeness. I don't like when the strong mock the weak. I don't like when people kill one another. I don't like when people don't have their own opinion. I don't like when even those whom I don't like are said to shut up.

I want Russia to be respected. Respected for new technologies, modern factories, beautiful and clean cities, high-quality and cheap goods. For our beautiful women, for hard-working and kind men. I want other countries to dream about joining us not out of desper or because we have higher pensions, but because we have fairer society and more freedom. I want people to go to us not to have fun with young prostitutes, but to treat the diseases that only our doctors can treat.

I don't want Russia to be feared and hated. I don't want the Russians to be regarded as aggressive, arrogant, ill-mannered people. I don't want the world to think about my country as an aggressor. I don't want Russia to have the highest rates of corruption and child mortality. I don't want my fellow countrymen to be turned into the unanimous crowd by massive propaganda.

I don't enjoy our problems. I am mocking. I am mocking the people, the Russians, who make Russia not the country I'd like to see, but the country I don't like to see.”

It's not the first time when Mikhail Yefremov has criticised Vladimir Putin, in particularly, for the “Crimean conflict”. He is known for his satirical project “Citizen Poet”.