Russian Mayor Withheld Anti-war Message From Time Capsule

• 30.05.2025, 15:21

He selectively quoted the text.

The mayor of Russia's Voronezh, Sergei Petrin, completely ignored the anti-war calls of the authors of a message from a 25-year-old time capsule, quoting only patriotic slogans from the text of the document, "Deutsche Welle".

The incident, which occurred on Friday, May 30, during the ceremonial opening of the 2000 message, was brought to the attention of local public figure Yuri Rodionov.

"We are breaking a new bottom with a new mayor. Read the text the mayor brought from the time capsule. Now look at the full text in the photo," the Urbanist wrote, releasing a photo of the text of the message. Its authors began with the statement: "No one needs wars, no one and no war. We have lived through them - civil, Great Patriotic, Afghan, Chechen - and let them remain in the XX century". However, in the mayor's official publication in his Telegram channel this phrase is absent.

In place of this, Petrin quoted another fragment, which speaks of the need to "make our country united and powerful," as well as calls to "decorate the neighborhood with magnificent palaces" and "give every child a happy childhood." The mayor, traditionally for Russian officials, called the war against Ukraine an ongoing "military operation." In it "we again have to defend our right to life and freedom," Sergei Petrin said. "I believe that we will win and what was punished to us will be fulfilled," he added.

The opened time capsule has been lying in the base of a pyramid in the Kominternovsky district of Voronezh for 25 years. It is noted that it was laid "in honor of the 55th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War." During the new event, a new capsule was laid, which is planned to be opened in 20 years - by the centenary of the event in 2045.