Masha Gessen in The New Yorker: “Instead of writing my own column, I have translated Zhukov’s final statement, delivered in court on Wednesday. I did it because it is a beautiful text that makes for instructive reading. Parts of it seem to describe American reality as accurately as the Russian one. Parts of it show what resistance can be. All of it, I hope, will make readers think twice before they use the word ‘Russians’ to mean goons.” The New Yorker: A Powerful Statement of Resistance from a College Student on Trial in Moscow. (In the same spirit offered by Masha Gessen, I’ll skip my usual commentary and leave it all to Yegor Zhukov who “stood accused of ‘extremism,’ for posting YouTube videos in which he talked about nonviolent protest.”) “I will endeavor to take joy in having this chance—the chance to be tested in the name of values I hold dear. In the end, Your Honor, the more frightening my future, the broader the smile with which I look at it.”