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CHIEF EXECUTIVE Ruth Smeeth EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jemimah Steinfeld ASSISTANT EDITOR Katie Dancey-Downs EDITOR-AT-LARGE Martin Bright ASSOCIATE EDITOR Mark Frary ART DIRECTOR Matthew Hasteley EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Guilherme Osinski SUB EDITORS Adam Aiken, Tracey Bagshaw, Jan Fox

SENIOR POLICY RESEARCH & ADVOCACY OFFICER Jessica Ní Mhainín EVENTS & PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER Emma Sandvik Ling DIRECTORS & TRUSTEES Trevor Phillips (Chair), Anthony Barling, Andrew Franklin, James Goode, Kate Maltby, Elaine Potter, Sarah Sands, Mark Stephens PATRONS Margaret Atwood, Simon Callow, Steve Coogan, Brian Eno, Christopher Hird, Jude Kelly, Michael Palin, Matthew Parris, Alexandra Pringle, Gabrielle Rifkind, Sir Tom Stoppard, Lady Sue Woodford Hollick

ADVISORY COMMITTEE Julian Baggini, Clemency Burton-Hill, Ariel Dorfman, Michael Foley, Conor Gearty, AC Grayling, Lyndsay Griffi ths, William Horsley, Anthony Hudson, Natalia Koliada, Jane Kramer, Jean-Paul Marthoz, Robert McCrum, Rebecca MacKinnon, Beatrice Mtetwa, Julian Petley, Michael Scammell, Kamila Shamsie, Michael Smyth, Tess Woodcraft, Christie Watson

OLESYA KHROMEYCHUK The grieving hearts left behind when death becomes news fodder

70 WORTH A GAMBLE:

JEMIMAH STEINFELD When telling the truth is a crime, turn to a criminal spam operation

CREDIT: (cover) Irina Potapenko

Comment

74 CANCELLING RUSSIAN

CULTURE IS TODAY’S MORAL IMPERATIVE: MARINA PESENTI Putin is using culture to extend his reach. We must say a hard no to this soft power play

76 CANCEL PUTIN, NOT

CULTURE: MARIA SORENSEN Banning Russian artists assumes that they are all collaborators of the Russian state and goes against artistic freedoms

78 BEWARE THE ‘CIVILISATION’

BATTLE: EMILY COUCH Why Europe must reject anti-Asian racism to fully stand with Ukraine

80 THE SILENT MINORITY:

RUTH SMEETH A tribute to those whose work never saw the light of day

Culture

84 ‘THE LIGHT IS NO LONGER

THE LIGHT IT USED TO BE’: LYUBA YAKIMCHUK The poet on children being indoctrinated and the elderly disorientated in Russia-occupied Ukraine

88 A CASSANDRA WORTH

HEEDING: DOMINIC CAVENDISH Murdered Russian journalist

Anna Politkovskaya, whose dispatches from Chechnya should be put in the spotlight

94 POETIC INJUSTICE:

STEPHEN KOMARNYCKYJ History is repeating itself on the pages penned by Ukrainian writers

96 BANKING ON RUSSIA’S

POETIC SPIRIT: MARIA BLOSHTEYN, YULIA FRIDMAN A “piggy bank” of Russian poetry is fighting on the right side of Putin’s war

98 METAPHORS AND MADNESS:

EDUARDO HALFON In Guatemala, truth is best expressed through fiction

104 METAL SHOWS ITS METTLE:

GUILHERME OSINSKI A heavy metal band labelled “satanic” by Iran is free from prison and taking back the microphone

106 AMERICA’S COMING

CRUCIBLE: JO-ANN MORT Women in the USA might soon be in the dark about their own bodies

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