“Stop this senseless suffering:” Note to Putin's daughter placed on husband’s land
An emotional appeal to the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin was placed on an empty plot of land on the Molenkade in Duivendrecht, reported AT5. It calls on Mariya Putina to try and convince her father to stop the Russian war in Ukraine. The plot is rumored to belong to Putin’s son-in-law, Russian-born Dutch businessman, Jorrit Faassen.
The sign was placed by a group of Amsterdammers and directly addressed Putina. “Less than 2000 kilometers from your peaceful piece of free land, your father is decimating an entire free country and its people,” it reads.
“It seems your old man is hard to reach and clearly impossible to stop by even his hangmen. But as we all know, fathers and daughters are a different story.”
It continued with a quote attributed to famed Russian novelist and Soviet-era critic, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: “The battle line between good and evil runs through the heart of every man,” an interpreted version of a line from his 1973 non-fiction work, The Gulag Archipelago.
“Please use your heart to reach his and stop this senseless suffering. We beg you, Maria,” the sign concludes. Candles and a flag were also left at the site to honor the people of Ukraine.
One of the Amsterdam activists said it was a symbolic gesture. He told AT5 that the limited company which bought the piece of land was removed from the Chamber of Commerce registry, and speculated that it could be to cover up Faassen’s ownership.
Financial magazine Quote confirmed that Faassen bought the site for 450,000 euros in 2019, and a spokesperson for the Ouder-Amstel municipality said that a permit was granted for the construction of a commercial property there. The spokesperson said they would examine ownership and planning to determine if the project complies with sanctions imposed against Russia after the country invaded Ukraine.
