I, Professor Dr. Mario Kessler, historian in Berlin, hereby strongly protest the Pervomaisk court’s conviction of Mr. Bogdan Syrotiuk.
Mr. Syrotiuk is accused of acting on behalf of the Putin regime in Russia. In court, Mr. Syrotiuk pleaded not guilty. He stated that, as a Ukrainian socialist, he condemns the Russian invasion from its beginning. The World Socialist Web Site, which is actively campaigning for his release and for which I was also interviewed, is a website registered in the United States.
The website is affiliated with a Trotskyist organization. Must I remind you that Leon Trotsky, as People’s Commissar for Defense, ensured the formation of the Red Army, which was able to curb the mass murder of Ukrainian Jews during the civil war? Must I also remind you that in 1939, Trotsky vehemently condemned the partition of Western Ukraine between Germany and the Soviet Union and advocated for a Ukraine independent of the Soviet Union, including Stalin’s Soviet Union?
How does this fit with the accusation that Mr. Syrotiuk, a self-proclaimed socialist and Trotskyist, is playing along with Putin’s game?
