Kamran Manafly is a 28-year-old schoolteacher in Moscow. Or rather he was until recently, when he lost his job after refusing to follow state guidelines on how to discuss Russia's "special military operation in Ukraine" with students. The final straw for the administrators was a photograph Manafly shared on Instagram from an antiwar protest where he wrote that he "doesn't want to be a mirror of government propaganda." The school fired him for "immoral behavior," and a security guard later attacked him when he tried to retrieve his belongings from his office. Within days, the principal even threatened to have him prosecuted for "betraying the Motherland." Meduza spoke to Manafly about his dismissal and subsequent decision to leave Russia altogether. What follows is his story, told in his own words.
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