"They bring you in, divide you into men and women. You strip naked, then some officials or FSB agents search you in rubber gloves without changing them," historian Petr Hlavacek describes what it looks like in the "concentration camps of the 21st century" where the Russians "filter" captured Ukrainian soldiers, but also civilians. Moreover, Ukrainian mothers in these camps often lose their children to Russia for re-education.
"Russia is in a demographic crisis, so it is spending a lot on children and youth to somehow improve the 'Slavic element' of the Russian Federation. Caucasian and Siberian ethnicities are growing over their heads," Hlaváček explains one of the reasons why Ukrainian children are being forcibly taken to Russia. According to the Ukrainian side, so far the Russians have been able to take tens of thousands of children out of the country. "Moreover, Russia is a country where something like human organ trafficking takes place. This is a catastrophic matter and a matter to which the civilised world should pay close attention."
Russia's elite, but also a large part of the population, still feel wronged that the West took away their zone of influence in the Cold War
"This is something that Putin's elites are very adept at nurturing in them. And this applies to education, propaganda inside, but also to how the Russian media operates. There will be few free-thinking people left in Russia. If there were, they ended up in a gulag somewhere or in exile. I think it would be healthy for Russia and for Europe to set up some kind of sophisticated iron curtain that would separate the Russian Federation for, say, 100 years, and it could heal."
Will Ukraine get back all its occupied territories, including Crimea?
"I believe so. And I think that the activities that the Ukrainian army is already undertaking point to that. It's already, albeit remotely, operating psychologically in Crimea - whether it's locals or immigrants from the Russian Federation or officials, those people in Crimea already know that it's no longer 'safe Russian territory. So something is happening," the expert concludes.
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