‘I can say Putin is an idiot — I have that freedom. In Russia that would be dangerous'
I n life, the teacher says to the tearful teenage crowd, 'you may face a crossroads'. The scene is like every summer graduation in schools across the world: a teacher in the baggy cardigan uniform of every popular young teacher, giving his final energy to a last bit of inspiration. 'Sometimes you will have to choose to do the right thing, and sometimes to express your love you will have to sacrifice everything.'
But there was something beyond ordinary about that day. No one knew that the teacher, Pasha Talankin, was talking to himself, facing his own crossroads, terrified of his own secret plan. Or, rather, talking to every one of us who wonder: what if an accident of history put me, little me, in a situation where I had a moral choice, where to do the right thing risked not just my comfort but my life? I know enough not to flatter myself.
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