…Other horrible news. Now from France. The Paris attacks brought memories of the Nord-Ost tragedy in Moscow…

…I’ve written this after the first terrorist act in Volgograd:

It happened again. People are dead. Why am I writing this? First of all, to express condolences to the families of the victims… As if they are interested in my words in a foreign language right now. Empathy is very important for us as human beings but when somebody dies, no one can do anything about it, thus formulaic expressions and social rituals are left for us as markers of our ‘humaneness’.

These words apply to the Paris attacks too. Compassion indeed is what makes human beings human(e). But watching how the global media machine is milking this new tragedy dry while using other tragedies – and this one is most likely not an exception – as a pretext to something even more violent and not mentioning other draconian acts or blaming them on the victims (“filthy Ruskies deserved it”) is disgusting.

Je suis Odessa.

Je suis Gorlovka.

Je suis Slavyansk.

Je suis Donbass.

Their lives matter just as much as the lives of French, British or American citizens. Only after stating this I say:

Je suis Paris… mais je ne suis pas Charlie.

P.S. When I came home from the film premiere at the Kosmos cinema today, I’ve found out that the Kosmos hotel which is situated near the cinema was evacuated due to bomb alert. By some strange coincidence (?!) De Gaulle monument was erected in front of the hotel. I even used to joke on de Gaulle in space (kosmos)…