‘Russia is ready for a new Tsar.’ Interview with Russian-Swiss Writer Mikhail Shishkin

Russian writer Mikhail Shishkin, who works and lives in Switzerland, is our guest in On the Record. He talks about how to defend Russian culture, how he witnessed Switzerland welcome dirty money with open arms and asks whether Russia and Ukraine will ever be able to reconcile in the future.

Russian writer Mikhail Shishkin may live in the peaceful village of Laufen but the war his country wages against Ukraine is a constant source of torment. "How do you explain to people there [in Russia] that they are fascists?" he asks in an interview with SWI swissinfo.ch.

Shishkin has been living in Switzerland since 1994. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he has followed the horrors of war through Telegram channels. "It hurts to be Russian," he says. "How can one be happy? How can one forget this? We are at war!"

“The Russian language has been stained in blood”, he regrets. But “Who will write the new novel of redemption?” The Russian author is not volunteering for the job. That task, he argues, is best suited for a Russian soldier, who has witnessed the worst of the war in Ukraine and must come to terms with what he saw – and did.

See more episodes in our special series 'On The Record':    • On the record  

By Elena Servettaz, Carlo Pisani

---
swissinfo.ch is the international branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Its role is to report on Switzerland and to provide a Swiss perspective on international events.

For more articles, interviews and videos visit swissinfo.ch or subscribe to our YouTube channel:

Website: http://www.swissinfo.ch
Channel:    / swissinfovideos  
Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c...