No going back?

UKRAINE. It would mean living with people who supported this catastrophe

Two contrasting quotations:

Image: Lenin’s Soviet banner: to which there is no going back? (blackswanantique.com)

‘If a democratic regime follows this one, I'll go back. If the next regime is the same as this or worse, no.’

Nikita Birokov, 17, musician, refugee from the Russian mobilisation, interviewed by Belgian TV station VRT, 28 September 2022

(in Dutch/English: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2022/09/27/getuigenis-rus-op-de-vlucht/)

‘I asked Baunov how long he thought it would be before he returned to Russia. He said that he didn’t know, but it was possible that he would never return. There was no going back to February 23rd—not for him, not for Russia, and especially not for the Putin regime. “The country has undergone a moral catastrophe,” Baunov said. “Going back, in the future, would mean living with people who supported this catastrophe; who think they had taken part in a great project; who are proud of their participation in it.”’

Keith Gessen in New Yorker Magazine: “Russia, One Year After the Invasion of Ukraine”, 21 February 2023

(possible £) https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/russia-one-year-after-the-invasion-of-ukraine

I wonder whether Nikita still thinks he would ever go back.

If a democratic regime follows this one, I'll go back. If the next regime is the same as this or worse, no.