Russian TV Station Proclaims 'No To War,' Plays 'Swan Lake' Before Going Dark.

[elleng]

TV Rain, an independent news outlet, aired the famous ballet in a bold nod to Russian history.

TV Rain, described by The New York Times as a “youthful independent television station,” announced Thursday that it would stop operating indefinitely under intense pressure from the Kremlin.

Russia’s telecommunications regulator had already blocked TV Rain earlier in the week, and some of the station’s employees have fled the country out of fear for their own safety, the Times reported. On Thursday, the outlet delivered its final show, which aired on YouTube.

“No to war,” Natalia Sindeyeva, one of TV Rain’s founders, said as the station’s employees walked out of the studio.

The station then began playing Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” ― a reference that many well-versed in Russian history recognized.

As NPR noted in a piece earlier this year about the significance of “Swan Lake” in Russian political history, Soviet state TV aired the ballet on a loop after the death of Premier Leonid Brezhnev while a new party leader was being selected. It did the same following the deaths of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko.

Then, in 1991, Soviet TV aired the ballet during the attempt to overthrow President Mikhail Gorbachev ― a failed coup that helped precipitate the collapse of the Soviet Union.'>>>

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tv-rain-no-to-war-swan-lake_n_62215ed4e4b0bd1df7692c36

[Chainfire]

1. And therein lies the best possible solution to the present crisis.

With Putin gone, the Russians could withdraw from Ukraine without losing face, blame the whole thing on Putin, tell the Russian people what really happened, and ask for forgiveness and relief.

[pandr32]

2. If only