Source: From the Moscow Conservatoire to death in a prison cell in Russia’s Far East
Fourteen time zones away from Washington, in a remote jail in Russia’s Far East, as preparations were finalised for a fanfare announcement of the biggest exchange of prisoners with Moscow since the Cold War, the classical pianist Pavel Kushnir died in silence.
The musician had spoken out repeatedly against the invasion of Ukraine and was eventually arrested in May and remanded at a pre-trial detention centre in Birobidzhan.
Behind bars, Kushnir began the ‘dry’ hunger strike – neither food nor water – which took his life on Sunday, 28 July, a few days before the group of better known dissidents were flown out of the country. They were swapped for Kremlin spies, sleepers and killers imprisoned in the west.
Kushnir was 39 when he died, slowly, and without publicity.
“We couldn’t chip in and send him a lawyer – we didn’t know,” said Svetlana Kaverzina, an independent politician in Siberia. “We didn’t write him letters of support – we didn’t know. We didn’t talk him out of sacrificing himself – we didn’t know. He was alone,” she wrote on Telegram.
The pianist was cremated on Thursday. Eleven people were in attendance.
The YouTube channel where Pavel Kushnir published his anti-war videos only had five subscribers when he was arrested. He only managed to post four recordings: “Greetings, anti-fascist diaspora of fascist Russia!” was how he introduced them.
距离华盛顿14个时区的俄罗斯远东地区的一所偏远监狱里，当冷战以来与莫斯科最大规模的交换囚犯的准备工作已经完成时，古典钢琴家帕维尔·库什尼尔却在沉默中去世。 这位音乐家曾多次公开反对入侵乌克兰，最终于五月被捕，并在比罗比詹的一个审前拘留中心还押。 在监狱里，库什尼尔开始了“干”绝食——既没有食物也没有水——在 7 月 28 日星期日结束了他的生命，几天前，一群更知名的持不同政见者被空运出境。他们替换被关押在西方的克里姆林宫间谍、潜伏者和杀手。 库什尼尔去世时年仅 39 岁，他的缓慢去世且没有引起公众注意。 西伯利亚独立政治家斯韦特兰娜·卡维尔齐纳表示：“我们无法筹钱为他请一名律师，我们也不知道这事。“她在电报群上写道，”我们没有给他写支持信，我们不知道这事。我们没能劝他不要牺牲自己——我们不知道这事。他是孤独的。”。 这位钢琴家于周四被火化。共有十一人出席。 帕维尔·库什尼尔被捕时，其发布反战视频的 YouTube 频道只有 5 位订阅者。他只发布了四段录音：“你们好，法西斯俄罗斯的反法西斯侨民！”他就是这样称呼他们的。
