Moscow.
100,000 calls are said to be received in Russia. On the line: people from Lithuania who want to talk about the war. What shoud that?
“Call Russia!” The idea is simple: just call people in Russia and talk about the war, which in Russia can only be called “special operations”. It is an initiative in Lithuania that claims to have already made more than 100,000 such calls. According to the Call Russia website, 30,000 volunteers are involved in the project and 60 full-time employees organize it.
One phone call cannot change the world, but several millions can, that is the motto of Paulius Senūta, who founded the initiative. The volunteers call millions of Russian households using a random number generator. “We worked out a conversation technique with psychologists,” Senūta told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Of course I don’t change a stranger’s world view in an hour. But people are starting to think.”
War in Ukraine: Telephone campaign from Lithuania is said to influence Russians
Paulius Senūta, the initiator, is the head of an advertising agency in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. One who says about his job: “Advertising agencies are definitely working to solve customers’ problems.” It is difficult to say whether there is a customer in the matter of “Call Russia”. “In the first days of the war, just about everyone here in Lithuania did something. Our idea was just to call,” emphasizes Senūta.
But if you read the interview guide that “Call Russia” gives callers, a possible propaganda accusation cannot be dismissed out of hand. The course of the telephone calls is specified in every detail by the advertising specialist. It starts with the words “I’m trying to connect with Russians and hear their side of the story about the current situation in Ukraine. I understand that we might have different views. But my goal is to have a peaceful conversation between two normal people.”
Many conversations last less than five minutes
Then you should tell this story: “I personally met a refugee. Her name is Svetlana, she escaped from Kherson. She lost her husband during the heavy shelling and had to leave town. She later found out that her house was destroyed by Russian missiles.” All of this can be read on the Call Russia website.
In any case, Paulius Senūta believes in the effect. Initially, those called reacted mostly angrily. Many conversations lasted less than five minutes. In the meantime, however, there are sometimes three-hour talks.
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