Indyvidual,

It will eventually - be up to the Russian people to decide
whether they want the war with Ukraine to continue.

Centuries of dreams, of hopes and tears
Have been hiding in Russia's soul for years
All tied and tangled in one layer
Of burning hope wrapped in a prayer
All the while that Russia's been burning
Its people for life have continued yearning

It's time to stand up and proclaim
That centuries of abuse were not suffered in vain.

Foxy,

You're implying that Russia should become a Democracy, why ? Look at all the pretend Democracies & even with your rose-coloured glasses what exactly do you see ? Overrun by Dark Age religious zealots who are not allowed to think for themselves & women being commodities used as breeding machines to defeat the "democratic" system with its own game for its eventual downfall. None of that in Russia as far as I know but feel free to correct me. Russia will remain Russia, will Europe & it's UN buddies ?

Indyvidual,

The dark side of this nation
Is its penal colony aberration
An arctic inferno frozen and brutal
With thoughts of escape being totally futile

Where millions of bodies lie side by side
Crimes the authorities try to hide
Alexei Navalny's widow weeps
As she tries in his name justice to seek

A lady brave who had to flee
To try to fulfill her destiny
The prisons and psych wards and abominable nooks
Solzhenitsyn exposed in his famous book

The Gulag Archipelago became well known
Showing the world Russia's terror zone
Autocrats like Putin will someday depart
Hopefully, his replacement will have a heart

And, like Gorbachev, he shall try to reform
An authoritarian political system hard to transform
Russia's an enigma that will need to dig deep
To wake up from the slumber of its comatose sleep

It will need to shed chains embedded in fear
And admit state control is far too severe
Only then can Russia stand up and proclaim
That centuries of abuse were not suffered in vain

Centuries of dreams of hopes and tears
Have been hiding in Russia's soul for years
All tied and tangled in one layer
Of burning hope wrapped in a prayer

All the while that Russia's been burning
Its people for life have continued yearning.
It's a shame that my gran won't be able to see
What Russia can finally truly be.

Its people for life have continued yearning.
Foxy,
Wherever bureaucracy reigns instead of common sense Public Servants there are people like these !

Individual,

In Russia as in China and North Korea, et al, - it's more than
just "bureaucracy." It's an authoritarian political
system that controls - with severe consequences to those
who disobey.

it's more than just "bureaucracy." It's an authoritarian political
system that controls - with severe consequences to those
who disobey.
Foxy,
Sounds eerily much like a Public Service Union !