Dear President Putin,

As members of the global reality-based community, we’d like to extend our appreciation and support for the Russian Federation’s decision to provide humanitarian and military assistance to Syria, its armed forces and its democratically elected leader, President Bashar al-Assad, in their fight against international US-backed terrorists.

The launch of airstrikes directed against ISIL terrorists in Syria comes at a critical time,¹ just as did Russia’s pivotal role in preventing a Western military intervention in 2013. As a voice of reason and a force for justice, you have the thanks and support of Syrians, Russians and all people of conscience around the world.

Since 2011, Western leaders have been determined to turn Syria into a failed state. They have gone to the extent of providing funding, training and weaponry to foreign mercenaries who have waged a brutal campaign of terror on the Syrian people and their legitimate government.² These terrorist forces and religious fanatics do not represent the will of the Syrian people, the majority of whom support President Assad. As you said in your speech at the United Nations General Assembly, it is for the Syrian people and only the Syrian people to decide who should lead them.

In 2013, when the West was primed to launch a military campaign on Syria, Russia stepped in to broker a peaceful, diplomatic solution. In a sane world, this would be the natural response to international problems, and Russia would not stand alone. Unfortunately, the West continues its dead-end policy of supporting violence, coercion and illegal intervention in the affairs of sovereign nations.

While the West pushes for destabilization, war and chaos, Russia stands firm in its commitment to dialogue, cooperation, international law and order. Your reaction to the crisis in Syria demonstrates exactly that.

Like you, President Assad has proven himself to be a man of intelligence, courage and good will. And like most public figures who possess such qualities, he has been relentlessly defamed and slandered by Western governments and media. One example is the Houla massacre in May 2012, in which 108 Syrians were killed, including 49 children. The Syrian military was blamed for this atrocity but it was later revealed that the massacre was perpetrated by forces aligned with the US-backed ‘Free Syrian Army’ (FSA), and that the victims were supporters of the Syrian government.³ Later in 2012, the FSA was observed killing kidnapped civilians and off-duty soldiers.⁴

This is the ‘moderate opposition’ group that Western government officials support in their illegal aggression against Mr. Assad, and whom they now accuse Russia of targeting with airstrikes. These facts and others show clearly that the US government and its allies merely profess to fight terror when in fact they directly create and support it in a futile attempt to secure US global hegemony. They do this without the support of the United Nations and without the support of the legitimate governments of the countries they attack.

The second Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold, whom John F. Kennedy considered the greatest statesman of his time, clearly saw the problems facing not only the UN, but the world at large. In 1958 he wrote:

“The conflict to different approaches to the liberty of man and mind or between different views of human dignity and the right of the individual is continuous. The dividing line goes within ourselves, within our own peoples, and also within other nations. It does not coincide with any political or geographical boundaries. The ultimate fight is one between the human and the subhuman. We are on dangerous ground if we believe that any individual, any nation, or any ideology has a monopoly on rightness, liberty, and human dignity.”⁵

We are on dangerous ground. The United States’ self-professed monopoly on rightness, liberty, and human dignity has led to wrongness, oppression and suffering on a massive scale. The Western mentality on display in Libya and Syria is truly subhuman⁶ — psychopathic⁷ — embracing the basest aspects of human nature.⁸

Naturally, the subhuman is reflected in the results of U.S. policy in Ukraine and Syria. In Ukraine, neo-Nazis are members of Parliament and form battalions which have tortured and murdered men, women and children in the Donbass, with the sanction of the government in Kiev. In Syria, the West’s policy of destruction and the support of terrorism have resulted in ISIL and other terror groups whose methods are publicly condemned but privately supported by Western leaders.⁹ This is not the vision humanity is desperate to embrace. This is not the vision we seek.

As long as world leaders continue to submit to the will of political psychopaths, humanity will never build a world of peace.¹⁰ We pray that more people will follow your example, by speaking truth to power, by acting firmly on their convictions and by refusing to be controlled by fear and ignorance. We hope that by doing so, we may all do our part to create a truly multipolar world free from the destructive influence of psychopaths and fanatics, and the toxic political structures they create that make peace impossible.

Sincerely,

alain harel - France
M Küttner - Germany
arnaldo garcia - Spain
KUČEROVÁ Dana - Czech Republic
Klaus Wember - Germany
Petra Steger - Germany
Winnie Hyrland - Denmark
Bradley Halfacre - Australia
Daniel Andersen - Iceland
Christian Pischinger - Austria
francis Viglieno - France
Sieglinde Uhl - Germany
Stefanie Sauer - Germany
Domenico Valerio - Italy
Fabio Biolcati - Italy
татьяна костромитина - Russia
Shaun Moorcroft - United Kingdom
Edgar Darío Correa Villalba - Paraguay
Miguel Jelling - Germany
Sabine Weinkauf - Germany
Michal Cetnar - Poland
Dr ALSHALLAH. ZHARH. - Mexico
Dr. Heidrun Eckert - Germany
mohammed adeel awan - United Kingdom
Waltraud Pesic - Hungary

So far 97,173 people have signed the letter.

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Dear President Putin and Russian People,

Please accept our apologies for the behavior of our Governments and Media. Western Nations, led by the United States, seem determined to start a war with Russia. A sane person would recognize the terrible consequences of such a war and would do everything in their power to avoid it. In fact it appears that this is exactly what you are doing. In the face of an endless stream of lies and provocations you have managed to keep Russia from being drawn into a nuclear war.^{1, 2}

Events surrounding the war in Ukraine are twisted to represent you as an aggressor when the facts clearly show otherwise. Neo-Nazi gangs commit atrocities against the citizens of Novorussia on a daily basis and they receive political and financial support from Western governments. The Ukrainian army has attacked Russian checkpoints and towns and regularly bombs refugees attempting to flee the country. Russia was blamed for the destruction of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, even though the evidence suggests that the flight was shot down by the Ukrainian army. You offer humanitarian aid to the people of Luhansk and you are accused of smuggling weapons into Ukraine.³

Why are you the target of these lies and provocations? The pathological criminals of the West are pushing for war with Russia because they need an external enemy. As long as the people are focused on “Russian aggression” they remain unaware of those truly responsible for the decline of the American economy and social system. In Europe, with its history of brutal wars sparked by arrogance and greed, European leaders have undergone a complete moral collapse and have naively fallen into line behind the USA’s policy of imperial aggression. The last great president of the United States, John F Kennedy, described our common enemy in 1961:

We are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day.

It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations… Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.⁴

Since that time the government of the United States and other Western nations have been infiltrated by this “ruthless conspiracy”. While it is not necessarily unified we believe that its leaders think and act without the burden of a normal human conscience. This is why they are willing to sacrifice the lives of millions or billions of people. They supply Israel with weapons that are used for the wholesale slaughter of thousands of Palestinians. They militarize police in places like Ferguson, MO to protect and strengthen their power over the people. They lie to start wars that take the lives of millions of people to increase their political power. They are despicable.^{5, 6}

Like JFK, you have a military background, so you are bound by a sense of duty to protect and serve the people of Russia. It appears that like him you recognized the madness of nuclear war and have turned towards peace.⁷ You refuse to endorse the American empire and you are working to undermine its power without engaging in direct military conflict. Instead Russia has developed closer relationships with many countries through organizations like BRICS, has forgiven old debts and worked with its partners to meet goals that serve the interests of the people. The idea of international partnerships has been called a multipolar approach and it contrasts sharply with the unipolar, imperialist policies of the US where all countries’ resources are controlled to benefit a powerful few–and at the expense of We the People.

We reject the greed, hatred and lust for power displayed by our “leaders”. We are outraged and horrified by the killing of millions of innocent people in the name of freedom and self defense. We want peace and justice for all people. We want a real and lasting peace, the kind of peace that JFK once spoke of:

What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children–not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women–not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.⁸

True peace and justice are impossible as long as the “ruthless conspiracy” rules the United States and other nations from the shadows. We pray that through our mutual efforts we may defeat the power-hungry and ruthless criminals who seek to enslave us all. We pray that we may instead foster a genuine peace that makes life on Earth worth living.

Sincerely,