We attended Medea Benjamin speak in Tacoma, Washington on March 13, 2023. We also listened to Medea speak at the cancelled event the next day in front of the Seattle church, where we hoped to hear changes from Medea Benjamin based on our conversation, but we didn't hear any changes in rhetoric.

Benjamin's and Davies's book lacks explanation of crucial aspects of Russian geopolitics and its instigator role in the current war. It presents Ukrainian resistance in a reductive manner, akin to the portrayals seen on Russian state TV. It reads as if Putin wrote it for them - and in the end, Putin is the only person who evades the author's poignant criticism.

Over and over, the authors echo the viewpoints spread by Russian propaganda, neglecting Russia's role in organizing the DNR and LNR (DPR LPR) uprisings - a fact that is also evidenced by Russia using the exact same tactics publicly when they 'officially' invaded Ukraine in '22.

The book prominently features only pro Kremlin voices in the book. The only full quotes in the entire book are from Putin, his apologists, and from people that attempt to make him sound reasonable.

The authors repeatedly bring up Ukraines issues with racism, antisemitism and reach as far back as the 1940s to talk about World War II completely neglecting the historically unifying goal of all Ukrainian nationalism in opposition to brutal devastating influence from Bolsheviks and currently Russia. It's a crime of omission which can't be overlooked - Kremlin's goal is to portray Ukraine as having nationalistic ethno state ambitions despite the parties with those views losing every recent political race with less than 2% of the vote. Comparatively, people with those similar views in the US won the presidency. Nationalism is alive and well in the world, in no small part thanks to Putin, and we insist that the authors use a thinner brush between people arguing for territorial integrity and the tiny minority that take a more radical stance. Are many US Nazis republican? sure. Are all Republicans Nazis? obviously not. Same in Ukraine.

The entire thing reeks of malevolence toward Ukrainians and if not just neglect of criticism, then advocacy for the blood thirsty Putin's Oligarchy.

The book appears to have started with a foregone conclusion and authors worked really hard to aggregate too often uncited or poorly cited talking points towards it, omitting all else in the process.

As a result it is as bloody in its neglect of the truth as Putin himself.

Obviously the anti war voice is a small one at the moment, and while it shouldn't be forgotten that war is the wrong choice "War is not the answer" as it were, advocacy against this war must focus squarely on the abuser stopping the violence. The book however makes nary a mention of Putin's imperialism, oppressions at home, or previous Russian invasions following Ukraine template of which there are many.

The "Putin is reasonably upset" narrative that the authors chose is entirely wrong for this conflict and as a result the book is equivalent with trash Kremlin propoganda of the highest order and deserves no audience in it's current state.

It would be prudent for Nicholas and Medea to apologize for the omissions to all Ukrainians and frankly all the free anti war Russians whose voices are currently absent in the narrative.

We, as Russian anti-war community, in this polarized world find ourselves wholly disgusted by 90% of the way this book portrays this conflict. We welcome the authors opposition to the war but we must insist that this both-sidesing of it stops immediately. If Russia leaves, Ukraine will be fine, and Russia will be fine. If Ukraine stops fighting Ukraine will die, as a country and for many ukrainians, literally as Putin exacts repressive controls and reprisals as dictatorial repressive governments do.

Putin's Oligarchy is a bloody malevolent criminal organization and must be called out as such. Russian invasion of Ukraine is a planned imperialist land grab justified by made up bogeymen and propped up by domestic Russian propaganda that has become part of Russia's international information warfare. It's not however a response to NATO bases and denazification as the book appears to imply... It 's unclear who in the editorial team exerted pro Kremlin influence on this book, but it's so obvious, it cannot be ignored.

Maybe we shouldn't be angry at the authors for falling prey to the most advanced propaganda machine ever deployed, but we do fault them for not sufficiently speaking to Ukrainians or antiwar Russians about it - either of whom would have told them not to publish this as is. We are eager to participate in an editorial process to correct those omissions.

We also support author's voice against the Oligarchy - yet while the authors are incredibly critical of the one in the US and frankly, the one in Ukraine, the book is mum about the role of Russian Oligarchs in orchestrating the bloodiest land grab in recent history.

The racism in refugee treatment is a worthwhile discussion and perhaps relevant to the broader understanding of the impact of this war, but has no bearing on explaining the conflict as the book purports to do.

The book has a deafening silence about Russian Oligarchs role in puppeteering the distancing of American politics from Ukraine in the critical buildup stage to this war 2016-2020. At every opportunity the authors completely sidestep all evidence of Kremlin puppeteering of the American republicans and Trump administration. The only reason we can think of is it's a tactic to garner republican favor, and If they sacrificed truth to get to their objectives, then have they not emulated the people they demonize?

If you're going to be anti war you must be anti oligarchy, and you can look to Russia for what America is about to have to fight. American oligarchy does by and large almost reflect the one in Russia, except that Russian Oligarchy has already affirmed its grasp on all branches of government with obviously devastating results, while the US Oligarchy is still somewhat hobbled by aspects of the constitution.

Putin's Oligarchy is ENTIRELY to blame for every aspect of this war. The book gives 0 reasonable arguments to the contrary, and is bloody silent on Putins ambitions, and prior historical behaviors. This is why it reads like a propaganda poster.

We hold that every anti war effort must be aimed at supporting Ukraine in THEIR territorial decisions and destabilizing and eliminating Putin's regime and Oligarchy. We ask that the authors stop publishing this book until we can go through a thorough edit and review with the Ukrainian and anti-war Russian communities. An acknowledgement of deficiencies and honestly an apology is also warranted and would go a long way to start the process… we also want Russia to stop attacking Ukraine, but we can't join hands with people while they are elevating our demons like you did in this book.