A Message to Like-Minded Russians.

I’ve lived in this area for sixteen years now, and apart from a few Union flags being in evidence during the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations ten years ago, I’ve never seen a flag flying here. We’re not especially given to that sort of thing in the UK, regarding it as a mildly amusing American habit. But there’s one here now. My neighbour across the field has rigged up a makeshift flag pole and is flying the yellow and blue of Ukraine on it.

This says something about the strength of feeling in Western Europe; how Russia is seen as the cowardly bully and the Ukrainians as innocent victims becoming heroes for fighting back. But we also know it isn’t quite that simple. We’re cognisant of the old ‘good Russians/bad Russians’ reality, and there is some sympathy for the good Russians because we know it can’t be pleasant living under Mr Putin’s evil eye.

It strikes me, therefore, that it would be helpful if someone could design and manufacture an alternative flag to the official Russian one – a flag which represents the good Russians who just want a peaceful world in which we can all be friends. No one would dare fly it in Russia, of course, because I expect such an act would be a capital offence, but we could fly it freely just to demonstrate to the good Russians that we know they’re there.