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Nicolai Lilin
52 quotes
“There is no longer a [Siberian] community. Just me, my brother, and maybe someone else. The problem is that nothing is left in Siberia either. The heart of that community was deported to Transdniestria and it didn't survive there. The community I describe in the book was made up of forty families. You could say that tradition was a support, but in some situations it is impossible for a deracinated community to survive.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Giacomo Rosso (13 July 2009), "Nicolai Lilin talks tattoos, Bulgarians and Transdniestria", Cafebabel.com
“The only thing that is certain about Russia is that it will always be deeply chaotic. That's normal. That is its historic state. In Russia a democratic government does not exist and never will. Only a dictatorship can manage to run a country like that and all the communities that live in it.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Giacomo Rosso (13 July 2009), "Nicolai Lilin talks tattoos, Bulgarians and Transdniestria", Cafebabel.com
“I genuinely consider myself Italian in every way. I have Italian citizenship, it would be mistaken and wrong to call myself Russian. Even if recently I have been heavily criticised by my former fellow Russian citizens.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Giacomo Rosso (13 July 2009), "Nicolai Lilin talks tattoos, Bulgarians and Transdniestria", Cafebabel.com
“I'm fucking telling you, my friend ... All the fucking money is in the hands of the rich fucking Jews. I'm telling you, it's a fucking conspiracy. And did you know that the rich fucking Jews started the Second World War? I'm telling you for sure, those bitches didn't spare their own tribe, just to enrich themselves further! ... You've heard of this Bilderberg Club, right? Yeah, yeah, my friend explained everything about them really well. My friend, you know, Licio fucking Gelli, P2, know what I mean? ... When I arrived, I was a complete fool about this, but he opened my eyes.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As reported by Aleksandr Garros (20 October 2009), "Непереводимая игра слов", Snob.ru
“I'm apolitical. I only write about what I've seen and experienced, but someone who still dreams of black communism would prefer me dead. And if I had stayed in the country, I already would be. That's why I, my wife, and my four-year-old daughter sleep with a Kalashnikov next to our pillow. [...] The Carabinieri are very worried, and my family even more so. On Facebook they have written terrible things to me, some absurd (a guy who claims to have paid hitmen from the Russian mafia to eliminate me) others more credible.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Maurizio Crosetti (16 December 2009), "Lilin, vita blindata Faccio il tatuatore in clandestinità", Repubblica.it
“I've never studied Italian, I learned it through contact with people, reading children's books and watching cartoons. But now I can even tackle Dante.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Maurizio Crosetti (16 December 2009), "Lilin, vita blindata Faccio il tatuatore in clandestinità", Repubblica.it
“Not only have I never gone to school, but not even the Holden school, which keeps ignoring me anyway.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Katia Ippaso (4 June 2010), "Nicolai Lilin, al di là del bene e del male", Storiedikatia.blogspot.com
“I live a fairly peaceful life compared to many others, but I have the support of the army and the police. I walk around with my gun. And I have weapons at home. But it's not true, as has been written, that I sleep with a gun. I sleep with my daughter. However, I prefer not to delve into the matter further.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Katia Ippaso (4 June 2010), "Nicolai Lilin, al di là del bene e del male", Storiedikatia.blogspot.com
“My daughter's only five years old and she's already learned how to dissassemble and reassemble a gun: I taught her that because I think it could be a useful skill for her one day.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Giorgio Cattaneo (30 September 2011), "Nicolai Lilin: Violenza utile?", Spazio filosofico, vol. I, 3, pp. 305-309
“I am appalled by how things are going with Putin, his homophobic laws, the censorship, pedophilia used as a criminal means of earning money. Western-style corruption has taken over, which is why Putin and Berlusconi are such friends, and even look like each other: both of them have undergone plastic surgery to look younger, but only Satan never ages. They are demons. [...] I no longer have the stomach to live in such a country, where the only way out left is suicide. [...] We need a new revolution, of ideas, not weapons.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Fulvio Paloscia (30 October 2013), "Lilin, passeggiando tra i maestri russi. Ora serve una rivoluzione delle idee", Repubblica.it
“I say what I know and what I know is certain. I have been involved in five wars, on the front lines, even though I am only 34 years old. When you Western boys were still messing around with some girl in the back seat of a car, I was already killing terrorists in Chechnya.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Giovanni Mari (28 June 2014), "Maidan, «l'ultimo golpe degli Usa in fallimento», Il Secolo XIX
“The history of the United States has been the history of a series of military interventions and aggressions, direct or indirect, real or fake wars. All to favor the private interests of private economic groups. A typical Anglo-Saxon style, moreover. They have not invented anything. They conquer territories, intervene in other people's affairs, only to grab money, allies, business.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Giovanni Mari (28 June 2014), "Maidan, «l'ultimo golpe degli Usa in fallimento», Il Secolo XIX
“Imagine if this vast continent, from Europe to Russia, to Kazakhstan, to India, to China, could unite. Imagine what a boom Italy could have, we could sell our fashion, our products, our books. We can do without the Americans and they can't stand it. So they have begun brutal operations, the same ones that today, however, they are no longer able to manage. They are losing everywhere, even here.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Giovanni Mari (28 June 2014), "Maidan, «l'ultimo golpe degli Usa in fallimento», Il Secolo XIX
“Development is here, Russia is growing and Europe has every interest in making a deal with them, freeing itself from the yoke of American private multinationals. I speak as an Italian citizen, as an Italian patriot. Our economy, the real one, does not need this system that is now bankrupt. It must free itself from the grip of America and Brussels.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Giovanni Mari (28 June 2014), "Maidan, «l'ultimo golpe degli Usa in fallimento», Il Secolo XIX
“Atheism is a religion. Declaring that you don't believe in anything is like saying you believe in something. In this way, they are a group, a cult.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Dario Ronzoni (26 March 2016), "Nicolai Lilin: "Ogni religione è una burocrazia che uccide la virtù"", Linkiesta.it
“We are all brothers in that area and I wouldn't know how to shoot a Moldovan, because I love him: he's my brother.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Transnistria. From an interview with Joe Pieracci (26 July 2016), "Lilin: 'Transnistria, un non luogo'", rsi.ch
“This snake [tattoo] on my arm is the demon I have to tame every day. My mentor forcibly tattooed it on me when I was 14. I had stabbed a boy in the back. He was paralyzed for life, but I was left with the demon tattooed with the needle, almost in relief, to hurt me more. A stain that reminds me of the biggest mistake of my life.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Giulia Santerini (27 July 2017), "Nicolai Lilin: "Ora vi educo con i tatuaggi siberiani"", Repubblica.it
“What is a criminal? One who goes against justice? But what justice? Weren't the partisans and those who fought against communist regimes outlaws? For the Urkas, even Jesus was an honest criminal, they like it when the gospel says he came to bring the sword. He was a revolutionary.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Giulia Santerini (27 July 2017), "Nicolai Lilin: "Ora vi educo con i tatuaggi siberiani"", Repubblica.it
“The champion of this club of oligarchs is Soros, who organizes revolutions and pushes global projects. In Italy we welcomed him with all honors, but perhaps it would have been better to treat him like the criminal he is. Here, people like him certainly have connections with the IOC and have all the tools to manipulate these people.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Russia's exclusion from the 2018 Winter Olympics. From an interview with Gioco Pulito (11 December 2017), Russia esclusa dalle Olimpiadi, Nicolai Lilin: 'Uno schiaffo alla Democrazia, una vendetta dei potenti', Gioco…
“There is no independent government in Italy. It is a country politically and militarily occupied by "terrorists" of the single currency, of single thought and of globalism.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Russia's exclusion from the 2018 Winter Olympics. From an interview with Gioco Pulito (11 December 2017), Russia esclusa dalle Olimpiadi, Nicolai Lilin: 'Uno schiaffo alla Democrazia, una vendetta dei potenti', Gioco…
“The Soviet Union was unified through sacrifice and blood, millions of people died. My grandfather, even though he was anti-communist, always said that the greatest feat accomplished by the communists was to have united the Soviet Union and that we had to keep it united because it was our country. It was nice to be all together, to have one currency, one constitution, to be able to move freely...”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Fabrizio Rostelli (13 April 2021), "Educazione siberiana e socialista", Ilmanifesto.it
“I've killed quite a few people in Chechnya who had American passports.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Fabrizio Rostelli (13 April 2021), "Educazione siberiana e socialista", Ilmanifesto.it
“Mine was a criminal family. My grandfather robbed banks and my father armored vans. During the war my grandfather was a sniper, like almost all Siberian hunters; he was in the same convoy that took the great Vasily Zaytsev to Stalingrad. I'm often told that I had a bad childhood. Perhaps it's true, but I liked it that way. That element got me closer to the adults and I felt responsible.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Fabrizio Rostelli (13 April 2021), "Educazione siberiana e socialista", Ilmanifesto.it
“I am an internationalist and I want to break down borders. I do not understand why the Eurasian continent should not be united. This wall is wanted by those who consider Europe as a subject and consumer of their products, that is, the United States. If the League acts as a battering ram to break down this barrier, I am willing to vote for it. Once the wall is gone, I can stop and look at all the ethical issues. What else can I do?”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Fabrizio Rostelli (13 April 2021), "Educazione siberiana e socialista", Ilmanifesto.it
“It was like a concentration camp and I have bad memories because it was the first time I saw human beings lose everything, even dignity [...]. Thank God no one tried to hit me or put me down, there was no sexual violence towards me because our group stayed together, we made business with nobody and just tried to survive. I knew I never wanted to go back.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his prison time. From an interview with Jay Richardson (30 March 2022), "Nicolai Lilin: Author of Siberian Education", List.co.uk
“In war, I had no time for understanding. It’s really fast and you think only of your mission. If you start to think about morality, you will die, because you lose control. You can’t think about life, you must think only of war so you will survive.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Jay Richardson (30 March 2022), "Nicolai Lilin: Author of Siberian Education", List.co.uk
“I'm not pro-Russian, I'm Russian. I'm ethnically Russian. How the fuck can you call a Russian pro-Russian?”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Riccardo Canaletti (24 November 2022), "Nicolai Lilin: 'L'Ucraina? Un Paese nazista peggio della Russia. Ne ho parlato dopo una fake news di Saviano'", Mowmag.com
“The West is the cradle of the fucking Anglo-Saxon colonialists, profiteers, bankers and warmongers. The world now no longer believes in the bullshit of Western democracy. The whole world is now against the West.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Riccardo Canaletti (24 November 2022), "Nicolai Lilin: 'L'Ucraina? Un Paese nazista peggio della Russia. Ne ho parlato dopo una fake news di Saviano'", Mowmag.com
“Boris Nemtsov was shot to death because he was a womanizer. He was obsessed with pussy and was unlucky enough to have slept with the young and beautiful wife of a Georgian businessman strongly linked to Moscow's organized crime. Do the math and you'll see that blaming the secret services is just strange.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Riccardo Canaletti (24 November 2022), "Nicolai Lilin: 'L'Ucraina? Un Paese nazista peggio della Russia. Ne ho parlato dopo una fake news di Saviano'", Mowmag.com
“Italian journalism and reporting [...] are all whores of the regime. I'm sorry but that's how it is. [...] when we talk about Italian newspapers, we are talking about scrap paper. Intellectual work in Italy no longer exists, coherence no longer exists. When you read something in the Italian press, it cannot be credible, period.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Diana Mihaylova (16 February 2024), "Lilin: 'Navalny? Nazista xenofobo. L'intervista a Putin di Carlson? Ha cambiato il mondo', Mowmag.it
“The majority of Russians are happy and actually want to support this policy more. When we talk about protests by Russians who do not want to go to war, it is all bullshit. Russians want to go to war and they want to defeat Nazism.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Diana Mihaylova (16 February 2024), "Lilin: 'Navalny? Nazista xenofobo. L'intervista a Putin di Carlson? Ha cambiato il mondo', Mowmag.it
“Have you ever seen Russia waging colonial wars or wars to expand its territory? [...] The Russians do not want to invade anyone. The only reason they wage war is to ensure the security of their borders. That is why Putin has moved his army into Ukraine, because since 1998 NATO military activities have been taking place there that threaten Russia's borders. It is idiotic to say that Putin wants to invade Poland and the Baltics. Putin wants to take it easy, he does not want to have a gun pointed at his face by NATO.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: [...] si è mai visto la Russia fare guerre coloniali o per allargare il proprio territorio? [...] I russi non vogliono invadere nessuno. L’unica cosa per cui sono capaci di fare la guerra è per assicurare la sicurezza s…
“The war will not be short, it will be long, but Russia will be victorious for a simple reason: we are in the midst of a change in the world order. The West will no longer be able to extend its dominion and supremacy over a part of the world.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Diana Mihaylova (16 February 2024), "Lilin: 'Navalny? Nazista xenofobo. L'intervista a Putin di Carlson? Ha cambiato il mondo', Mowmag.it
“The West has beauty, a great cultural heritage, and enormous potential, but it must free itself from Anglo-Saxon hegemony.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Diana Mihaylova (16 February 2024), "Lilin: 'Navalny? Nazista xenofobo. L'intervista a Putin di Carlson? Ha cambiato il mondo', Mowmag.it
“My only commitment is to block any kind of support for the war. I have no other political interests. I have never been seriously interested in any kind of political program.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Alfonso Raimo (2 May 2024), "'Putin ha le sue ragioni, gli oligarchi filoatlantisti sostengono il nazismo ucraino'. Cronache dal mondo di Nicolai Lilin, candidato di Santoro", Huffingtonpost.it
“My values are left-wing, but not as the left is defined in Italy. I am not someone who fits into an ideology within the Italian system. I know well that in Italy some say that I am a fascist, because they quote some out-of-context phrase, or some old position of mine. But the truth is that I am the product of the Soviet system, for better or for worse.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Alfonso Raimo (2 May 2024), "'Putin ha le sue ragioni, gli oligarchi filoatlantisti sostengono il nazismo ucraino'. Cronache dal mondo di Nicolai Lilin, candidato di Santoro", Huffingtonpost.it
“Despite the fact that he [Volodymyr Zelenskyy] is from a Jewish family, and that his grandfather served in the Soviet army, he supports Nazism for money, for economic reasons.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Alfonso Raimo (2 May 2024), "'Putin ha le sue ragioni, gli oligarchi filoatlantisti sostengono il nazismo ucraino'. Cronache dal mondo di Nicolai Lilin, candidato di Santoro", Huffingtonpost.it
“It was ISIS in league with the Ukrainian Nazis. [...] But the order came from the CIA.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Crocus City Hall attack. From an interview with Alfonso Raimo (2 May 2024), "'Putin ha le sue ragioni, gli oligarchi filoatlantisti sostengono il nazismo ucraino'. Cronache dal mondo di Nicolai Lilin, candidato d…
“That's the beauty of the Democratic Party: they support the Nazis in Ukraine, but they call me a fascist because I went to Casapound.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Alfonso Raimo (2 May 2024), "'Putin ha le sue ragioni, gli oligarchi filoatlantisti sostengono il nazismo ucraino'. Cronache dal mondo di Nicolai Lilin, candidato di Santoro", Huffingtonpost.it
“When I was 12, Andriy Parubiy entered my town of Bender in Transnistria, leading some Nazi gangs who killed, among others, my uncle and my little cousin Tatiana.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Alfonso Raimo (2 May 2024), "'Putin ha le sue ragioni, gli oligarchi filoatlantisti sostengono il nazismo ucraino'. Cronache dal mondo di Nicolai Lilin, candidato di Santoro", Huffingtonpost.it
“The Siberian community I grew up in actually originated from another, much older, community which had already developed a self-regulating mechanism that was opposed to any form of power. They were opposed not only to socialism but to the tsarist regime and its oppression. In my book I talk about how opposition to communism changed the community, its traditions and its social rules and how it led to its extinction. I grew up in Transdniestria, where people were forced to live by the regime. By the end of the 1980s, I already knew the community was dying. When I began to write I realised that tradition helped it to survive, but couldn't save it.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Giacomo Rosso (13 July 2009), "Nicolai Lilin talks tattoos, Bulgarians and Transdniestria", Cafebabel.com
“Since I have always dealt with security, a private volunteer company linked to the Vatican infiltrated me into some Satanist groups for two years. I discovered a large pedophile ring there between Russia and Europe. I have reported on several people, but the problem is that they are thoroughly protected. [...] I can say that I uncovered the existence of a pedophile network in Munich. The report was never followed up. After all, a porn film with the participation of a minor, shot in a few copies, can cost from 50 to 70 thousand euros. I discovered some really disgusting things. [...] I hoped to continue working in this environment, but, after the publication of my two novels, my face is just too well-known. Plus, I now have a five-year-old daughter. However, I will never stop telling everyone that pedophiles are rich and powerful, and not just in Italy: in Belgium there are pro-pedophile associations that help them hide.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Alessandro Mezzena Lona, "Nicolai Lilin racconta la sua sporca guerra combattuta in Cecenia", Il Piccolo, 20 May 2011.
“To avoid further deaths and douse the fire of this civil war, Ukraine must cease to exist as a State. The government, law enforcement and the army which have stained themselves with crimes against humanity must be arrested and tried for their responsibility. NATO should be dissolved immediately, seeing as the bloc of nations comprising the Warsaw Pact hasn't existed for more than two decades. What's needed is a military intervention by the UN to disarm both sides involved in this war. The criminal Nazis of Kiev, their Washington collaborators and advisors should be brought before the International Court of Justice in Hague and judged with all the severity that the law allows. Only this way and only from that point on will true and coherent news start arriving from that scarred nation: only then will the world be able to breathe freely.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From "L'Impero delle Balle", Espresso.repubblica.it (18 July 2014)
“The [Second Chechen War] was caused by America's attempt to gain control of the Caspian Sea, this extraordinary energy reserve, a crucial geographic point for controlling all the former Soviet republics and Iran, where the viaducts transporting oil and gas run. To do so, they knew full well what the best tool was destabilizing Chechnya and Dagestan. The war in Chechnya began on the basis of this geopolitical premise: the United States' attempt to hold the Islamic Republic of Iran in check and seize Russia's historical territories. The forces in play at the time were the Russians, including the Chechens, and terrorists infiltrated by the CIA through a state that had sold itself to the Americans: Georgia.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From #Scrittori in Ascolto - Con Nicolai Lilin, Criticaletteraria.org (26 July 2014)
“The first person I killed was a thirty-year-old gypsy who was dealing heroin in my neighborhood. I was fourteen, I tried to fight him and make him leave, but he beat me up. So I went to my grandfather and told him everything; he loaded a revolver, gave it to me and told me to shoot him in the knees. I shot him in the knees with the first shot but the second one went wrong and I hit his liver and he died. It was a war and my father did much worse. He was one of those who carried out reprisals, he suffered three very serious attacks, in one of them I was also in the car when they shot at us. A real war. Then my father had to leave the country because the war was lost. Corruption and the power of traffickers and drugs won. In fact he joined the police, politics, corrupt power and our country was occupied by these people. My mother, finding herself in this situation, married to a man who for years had opposed this system, had to flee because too often corrupt policemen came to search and threaten us, to know where my father was hiding, where his money was. I myself was taken into the woods several times, they pointed a gun at my head to try to get information. Then I also went away and had my experiences.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Alessandra Farinola (2016), "Intervista a Nicolai Lilin", Mangialibri.com
“Russia encompasses one sixth of the Earth's surface. An act of castration has been put in place against the Olympics, because the Olympic Games without Russia will be a joke. What's more, they will be a slap in the face to democracy, pluralism and the unity of all the peoples who find themselves in the Olympic spirit. [...] This is a pretext to make Russia appear as a rogue state in front of the entire civilized world, reawakening the ghosts of the Cold War. It is a way to humiliate Russia and its citizens. Among other things, I still do not understand on what tangible evidence this nonsense is based. To me it seems like an agenda, the arguments seem weak and we have not yet seen incontrovertible proof.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Russia's exclusion from the 2018 Winter Olympics. From an interview with Gioco Pulito (11 December 2017), Russia esclusa dalle Olimpiadi, Nicolai Lilin: 'Uno schiaffo alla Democrazia, una vendetta dei potenti', Gioco…
“When I did military service in the sabotage squad and captured Islamic terrorists, we'd adopt a practice of preparation for interrogations which has always bothered me. [...] First of all we'd remove their trousers and underpants. Then we'd make a sort of gag with their socks which we'd stuff into their mouths. [...] I didn't get it at first. Then I asked our captain about it. [...] He explained that this practice had been studied by some psychologists, and that it served to deprive the prisoners of their own dignity, and therefore break them. So when we brought them before the interrogator, the terrorists would start talking immediately. It wasn't so hard to extract information from them at that point.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Andrea Indini (19 October 2020), "Coronavirus, Nicolai Lilin: 'Così hanno generato il terrore nel popolo'", Ilgiornale.it
“If you read Wikipedia it seems that the Moldovans tried to re-annex Transnistria which in the meantime had proclaimed itself independent. It is half true. First of all, the Moldovans did not want to leave the Soviet Union. They left because some corrupt politicians, paid by Western oligarchs, destroyed the USSR. An army of mercenaries from all over the world arrived here: Hungarians, Germans, people from the Baltic countries. If the war lasted only two months it is precisely because the majority of the Moldovan people were against it and did not want to invade us. The greatest number of victims occurred during the first few days, when people were simply massacred while they tried to return home in fear. The first resistance, the most consistent, was popular. We kids rode the streets on bicycles and collected ammunition, we took weapons and other useful things from the dead. We followed the movements of military vehicles and reported them to the adults. It also happened that we fired Kalashnikovs in firefights. At that time the people in my building lived in my house because we had water from the well and several supplies of canned food. In the apartments there was no electricity, nor gas, they also cut off the water in the whole city because the mercenaries had tried to poison it. There were also several elderly people who needed medicine; in our courtyard we had a small refugee camp.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Transnistria War, from an interview with Fabrizio Rostelli (13 April 2021), "Educazione siberiana e socialista", Ilmanifesto.it
“One time, I found a kidnapped boy of 10 or 12, really dirty, really scared [...]. I preferred to see dead people. Alive was more terrible, because their condition was like dead. All those people who stayed a year or more in the terrorist camps had psychological troubles for the rest of their lives. He slept on my arm and our doctor told me to keep holding him, because he was nervous, he needed to feel my body to sleep. When I saw Salvatores' film, with the kidnapped boy, it was like reality for me. I told my manager, "he can make the film because he doesn’t care about money or public opinion [or even recreating] things in a perfect historical way, he cares about the true story inside the person".”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Jay Richardson (30 March 2022), "Nicolai Lilin: Author of Siberian Education", List.co.uk
“I work with news, on my private Telegram channel; therefore, I have people who pay me to be informed. If people pay to have coherent news, it means that many citizens do not agree with what the Italian media reports and it is not surprising, because the Italian press keeps telling a lot of bullshit. The Russian press is always based on a propaganda line. We must not think that in Italy they are propagandists and in Russia they tell the whole truth. There is propaganda there too, but there is a difference: Russian journalists do not distance themselves from the objective truth, which is what Westerners have started to do quite some time ago.”
Nicolai Lilin (born 1980) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Diana Mihaylova (16 February 2024), "Lilin: 'Navalny? Nazista xenofobo. L'intervista a Putin di Carlson? Ha cambiato il mondo', Mowmag.it