Enemies and critics of Vladimir Putin have been known to end up dead, but even as a Russian, Mikhail Baryshnikov isn’t afraid.
What a thing to behold. Back in the mid 1980s, Baryshnikov starred in White Nights as a ballet dancer singled out as a Russian defective who must plot his way to freedom. Fast forward a few decades, and the one-time Sex And The City actor is reflecting (during a CBS Sunday Morning interview) upon how Russians are inherently pressured to not criticize their government. Of course, protests show that this still happens, although authorities are known to still round up protesters, and if one is a political opponent to Putin, like opposition leader Alexei Nalvany, then there’s ongoing imprisonment as a part of the prescription of punishment.
And that’s not to mention the mysterious poisoning deaths of journalists (this also happened to Nalvany) and ex-KGB agents who dare to criticize the Kremlin. Well, Baryshnikov isn’t going to keep sitting down, and he feels that, at this point, he’s got nothing to lose at age 75 by speaking his mind regarding Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. “I couldn’t stay silent this time,” Baryshnikov declared to CBS News. “I was born in Soviet — at that time Soviet Latvia — in a family of a military officer.”
Notably, Baryshnikov recently cofounded a charity (True Russia) for Ukrainian refugees, and the organization’s website quickly found itself banned in Russia. Here’s part of the CBS News transcript where Baryshnikov tells Anthony Mason that Putin’s silencing attempts are “disgusting,” and then comes the discussion of giving no f*cks:
MASON: Do you think of this as Russia’s war? Or Putin’s war?
BARYSHNIKOV: It is Putin’s war. … He’s trying to create a new history of Russia. … He does not care about people at all … although how it’s possible, he has kids himself, you know? How it’s possible?
MASON: Russians who speak out against him have a way of kind of disappearing.
BARYSHNIKOV: Listen, I will be 75 years old. What have I to lose?
Baryshnikov’s refusal to be silent will bring attention to not only displaced Ukrainians but also the thousands upon thousands of Ukrainians have lost their lives in the conflict thus far. And it appears that the fed-up wives of Russian soldiers are pointing toward a great number of casualties on their end as well, in addition to the top Russian commander who got whacked by a sniper as the war cranks past 100 days.
This CBS interview will air on June 19 and can also be streamed on Paramount+.