Varia Bortsova 💙💛 @variainayurt Twitter profile

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

1 year

It’s time for some soulful Kazakh music

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

6 years

Dancers of the Bolshoi ballet following yesterday’s football match backstage during a performance of Raymonda Photo via Bruna Gaglianone

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

As trivial as it is, McDonalds closing down in Russia is very symbolic. When the first restaurant opened in Moscow in 1990, my parents joined a line of 30,000 people to get in. For most Russians it was the first glimpse of what eating out could be like over the Iron Curtain.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Ilya Yashin sentenced to over 8 years for condemning the Russian army in Bucha Show me a morally sound Russian man who is: a) not in prison/on trial b) hasn’t fled the country c) still alive

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

This is peak irony. The majority of Soviet and Russian kids were raised in 100% female households (single mother / mother + grandmother) due to factors like high divorce rate/alcohol abuse/high male mortality rate. Which thanks to Putin’s war is growing higher and higher

Russia in Canada

@RussianEmbassyC

2 years

It is all about family. Family is a man and a woman and children.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Putin is not paranoid at all, he meets regular Russians ALL the time Oh wait

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

25 years after the fall of USSR, I started @sovietvisuals to give people a glimpse behind the Iron Curtain - an isolated country shut out from the rest of the world with one centralized source of news called Pravda (“Truth”), total censorship🧵

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

One of the deceased Russian conscript soldiers. He was born under Putin and he died under Putin in a senseless, unnecessary war.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

1 year

It's not an international arrest warrant it's a special disciplinary operation

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

4 years

You know how girls sometimes tell their parents they’re going to a friend’s house but instead go to a party.. this one went to SPACE

Soviet Visuals

@sovietvisuals

4 years

On the day of her solo space flight in 1963, Soviet cosmonaut and first woman in space Valentina Tereshkova told her mother that she was attending a skydiving competition. Her mother discovered where she actually was from a radio announcement later that day.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

7 months

The songs are in Hindi, Uzbek Santa is hanging out with a delirious teletubby and some crystal bears, and everyone is happy. If your party does not look like this party in Samarkand, don’t even bother inviting me

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

10 months

My grandmother spent a long time in the Soviet Union so she uses the red flag emoji to communicate “celebration” 😂❤️🥹

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

May everyone resist evil with the same strength as this little shelf in someone’s house in Ukraine 😢💪

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

1 year

is looking for a new CEO and the application form is a work of art

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

9 months

She was a punk, she did ballet

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Uhm

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Can we talk about how they lost their homes

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

4 years

Деятельность коронавируса запрещена на территории Российской Федерации

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

4 years ago this week, the World Cup came to Russia and enveloped it like an alternate reality AR filter: a month of camaraderie, friendly police that didn’t beat anyone up, tolerance towards difference. A month of what Russia could have been

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Who would have ever imagined that over a period of 2 weeks, modern Russia would make its way right back there. Except we are now in the 1930s version - more repressions, less space race. Feels like a computer game where we lost all the lives and are back to square zero.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

4 years

Soviet Minsk x Swiss Alps (Photo of Minsk borrowed from the wonderful Arseny Kotov)

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

3 years

Watching Soviet Winnie the Pooh (Vinni Pukh) who always looked like he has seen terrible things he will never forget

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Siberians on Tinder steering clear of ambiguity these days

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

3 years

Finally made it to the Trans-Siberian.. #adventure #blessed

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

3 months

Fyodor Dostoevsky's manuscript draft of The Brothers Karamazov makes me feel a little better about my own notation methods

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

4 months

Modern Russia in one screenshot: “Founder of the Moscow Cat Theatre Yuri Kuklachev urges Russia to bomb all of Europe in response to the terrorist attack in Moscow”

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

3 years

Top: H&M Skirt: Druzhba Sanatorium in Yalta, USSR, 1986 Shoes: Teenage mistake

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

A masterclass in statistics/graphic design from Russian state television

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

horrific repressions for speaking any actual truth, shortages of almost everything, a travel ban, a nuclear threat and a community of people trapped within a weird slice of history who against all odds found ways to live, laugh, love, speak out, build and even create art.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

7 months

Stunning metro stops in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

3 months

GPT-4o may be tough but Russian cursive is tougher

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

1 year

Me *trying to explain to a Kazakh friend which local film I am thinking of* Friend: “is it the one with the horse?” Kazakh films:

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

6 years

Quick story that will restore your faith in humanity: I landed in Moscow at 5am yesterday morning and took a cab from the airport to my house. Had a nice conversation with the Kyrgyz driver, got home, went to sleep, then woke up at 1pm in realisation that...

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

4 years

attempting to stock up on groceries while keeping your distance from other humans in the midst of a global pandemic

Soviet Visuals

@sovietvisuals

8 years

Excerpt from 1986 Soviet film "How To Become a Star". LICEDEI Theatre.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

4 years

If you thought your social media bio was badass, check out former Soviet chemist Vil’s

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Eastern European men flirting:

Soviet Visuals

@sovietvisuals

2 years

Soviet poet, body-builder & futurist Vladimir Goldschmidt hypnotizing a chicken, 1923

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

4 months

Massive line in Geneva for Noon Against Putin. The look on people’s faces as they approach and see the giant crowd that has assembled is priceless 🥹

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Soviet joke. Is it true that there is freedom of speech in the USSR? Yes. In the USA, you can yell "Down with Ronald Reagan," in front of the White House and you won’t be punished. In Moscow, you can also yell, "Down with Ronald Reagan” at Red Square and you won’t be punished.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

3 years

Memories of Russian kindergarten, a thread ⬇️

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

4 years

Moscow Round House

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

1 year

ChatGPT would never think of this

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

5 months

Happy International Women's Day. May the women in your life be more visible than they are in this Russian conference titled "Women who change the world"

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

4 years

That awkward moment when your country is falling apart and you decide to monetize your space program

Soviet Visuals

@sovietvisuals

4 years

1989 Glavkosmos ads.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

7 months

lol

Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

7 months

What is preventing you from moving to Russia?

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

1 year

Matcha latte with a touch of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

I think Soviet Tajikistan needs a hug

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Live footage of me tuning in to the World Cup for one game only and forming an opinion on everything

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

4 years

honestly with every ad I'm more and more convinced that no one does country marketing better than Baltic states exhibit 1 - Vilnius, Lithuania 2018 (official tagline: “Vilnius: Nobody knows where it is, but when you find it – it’s amazing.") exhibit 2 - @visitestonia March’20

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

You’ve probably heard of Tsar Nicholas II, but did you know that he had a dragon tattoo???

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

4 years

Former Soviet engineer grand-uncle Kolya with a magazine and some cranberries in a village not far from Moscow.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

4 months

Dua Lipa's latest music video is giving strong Moscow 1980 Olympics vibes

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Urgently recruiting for an assistant to support me in my work for the CIA. Expertise in liver journal will be considered as an advantage

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

3 years

Has technology gone too far yes it has

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Used an AI image generator to illustrate how artists of the past might depict an Olympic Games Closing Ceremony. 1) Vincent Van Gogh

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Is there a good online course on how to overthrow the government

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Not sure when I’ll be in Russia again so changed my dishwasher language to Russian to fight the homesickness 🙂 now it just needs to become passive aggressive for an authentic experience

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

In my next life I’d like to be born in a tiny antisocial country in the middle of nowhere where people spend their days making music and art and gazing at the stars and the biggest territorial ambition concerns whose house to have dinner at on any given evening

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Taking into account the number of people claiming @sovietvisuals is run by the US State Department, I think I at least qualify for a honorary visa or a lifetime pass to Disneyland or something

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

A shoutout to @francska1 who has been doing an incredible job translating/contextualising Russian propaganda. Even a few minutes of it are completely soul-sucking so I cannot imagine the strength one must have to watch it ALL 💪🙏

Francis Scarr

@francis_scarr

2 years

Rossiya 24: "🇺🇦 nationalists are taking people hostage & using them as human shields to hide behind. In the West they're ignoring this, just like the war crimes over the past 8 years. Indeed the tactics of the nationalists who hide behind children haven't changed since WW2"

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

1 year

Don’t think most are cheering for Prigozhin, rather for the two madmen’s shift to trying to destroy each other vs the rest of the world. Hopefully both are successful

Dr. Ian Garner

@irgarner

1 year

Prigozhin is an abominable monster. If his coup is successful, Russia is not going to be a better or more peaceful place. Don’t cheer him on like he’s some hero or liberator.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

My favorite, red line of the Moscow metro. Not sure when we will meet again, so I decided to virtually tattoo it on my back for the time being

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

4 months

Putin election results: 2012 - 64% 2018 - 76% 2024 - 88% So, in 2030 we will finally reach 100%, followed by 112%. Is the math correct?

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

6 years

Wrapping up the work week in my Lenings by @sovietvisuals

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

1 year

hello

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

6 years

Meanwhile in Lithuania: the tourism department launched a new advertising campaign positioning the country's capital Vilnius as "The G-spot of Europe". Their official tagline? “Vilnius: Nobody knows where it is, but when you find it – it’s amazing."

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

6 years

Unrelated photo of beautiful Kyrgyzstan below; not that I needed an extra excuse to go back to there but I definitely will now.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

1 year

Happy Maslenitsa!

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Uhm did this Russian ballet company based in Saint Petersburg (!!!) randomly rebrand to “Ukrainian Classical Ballet” to avoid jeopardizing their international tours 🤦‍♀️ 🤯

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

1/ Many of you called me ‘brave’ following the NYT essay. I am not brave, but I did think about it beforehand and arrived to these conclusions: - I am outside Russia and so is most of my family. This makes it my responsibility to speak up on behalf of those who cannot

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

4 months

“Russian court states that the 🫶 symbol may be treated as a sign of extremism” reads like satire (but it isn’t)

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

1 year

Don't put all my eggs in one basket? Nice try, basket industry

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Moscow swaps regular holiday decorations for festive Russian swastikas (Z) installed around the city this year. Never imagined that I would see this in my lifetime, but here we are, and it will remain part of our shameful history forever

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

4 years

A little bit about transferable skills

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

👏👏👏

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Culturally required

Spoonamore: On a bike? Get a like.

@Spoonamore

2 years

I repeat, for the 1000th time over 30 years...Dont' do Business with #Russians or #Texans . At best, they are culturally required to cheat you, but what they really hope to do is kill you and take everything.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

RIP Dmitry Vrubel

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

7 years

My parents got married 31 years ago today. Staying true to the typical Soviet-era wedding photo, they couldn't look more excited.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

1 year

Came across a Soviet-era joke. “Will there be a Third World War?” “No, but the struggle for peace will reach such degree that there will be no stone left intact on the earth.”

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

6 years

What a stunning photo of 3 generations of one Kazakh family (and a horse and an eagle :) ) traveling through Mongolia's Altai mountains by @tariqzaidiphoto

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

. @TaikaWaititi following @sovietvisuals is firmly locked in my list of top life achievements

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

I spent my entire life preparing for this job

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

This image resonates particularly strongly at the end of this dark year. May 2023 bring peace, may good triumph over evil, may loved ones stay healthy and safe. I wish us all to find enough wisdom and love to build a better future: happy almost new year, friends 🕊

Soviet Visuals

@sovietvisuals

2 years

New Year in a psychiatric hospital. Moscow, 1988. Photo by Pavel Krivtsov

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Live footage of Russians fleeing the country en masse following the mobilisation announcement

Soviet Visuals

@sovietvisuals

7 years

Lambada dance. Beauty contest "Spring 90" at ballroom dance studio "Rovesnik"at the Kirov factory, Ufa. 1990.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

My morning routine: wake up, drink a glass of water, feel ashamed of Russia for the rest of the day

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

Eastern European version of going to therapy

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@variainayurt

3 years

extended

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@variainayurt

2 years

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

1 year

A year ago today, we found ourselves locked inside a giant, empty airport in China in the middle of the night. And made the most of it.

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

2 years

I am going to throw up

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

1 year

500 days

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

1 year

We have total freedom of speech in Russia, just no freedom after speech

The Times and The Sunday Times

@thetimes

1 year

A man is facing up to three years in prison in Russia for joking about the Ukraine war as critics accuse the Kremlin of returning to Soviet-style terror

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Varia Bortsova 💙💛

@variainayurt

5 months