Eight months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there is still no end in sight to the war. Lithuanians have come up with a creative way to get closer to a Ukrainian victory by calling and talking to residents of Russia. The cautious motto of the initiative Call Russia reads: “One phone call won’t end the war, but maybe 40 million will.”

About 50,000 volunteers from all over the world have already made at least 173,000 phone calls with randomly selected Russians, says initiator Paulius Senūta. He got the Russian phone numbers from a database of a “friend with IT knowledge”. He then built a website that calls any number at the push of a button.

The volunteers at his international call center come mainly from countries with a Russian-speaking minority (Baltic States) or many Ukrainian refugees (Poland, Romania). The Netherlands are also relatively well represented, says the Lithuanian. In the beginning there were also volunteers from Russia, but the site is now blocked there.

find common ground

Senūta and a team of psychologists, diplomatic negotiators in wartime situations, and other specialists prepared guidelines for conducting telephone calls. “Half of the calls lead to a real conversation, and I would classify about half of them as successful.” The conversations last an hour on average, says the Lithuanian.

First of all, it is important to gain trust, for example by showing interest in the other person. In this way, it is possible to assess whether the Russian interlocutor is ready to talk about his views. “This willingness has grown as the war continues and normalizes.” According to Senūta, many Russians want to talk about the conflict because there is little space in Russian society to discuss the issue.

Then he slowly leads the conversation in the direction of the abuses in the war and the many innocent victims. “Everyone wants to prevent unnecessary suffering. This is how you find common points of contact.”

Senūta has since lost count, but he estimates he’s already made at least 500 phone calls. He has no illusions that he can completely change people’s minds in a single conversation. “Some say so, but I don’t believe it. It’s a whole process to go through: from denial to anger and despair to slow acceptance.”

mistrust

After many hours of phone calls over the past few months, he feels he understands Russians better. “There is not one Russian, but the identity of the average Russian is shaped by the idea that Russia can be a great country but is being fought by the West,” Senūta analyses. “You can’t change the feeling that Russia is being humiliated and attacked, it’s in them.”

An interesting paradox plays a role here, says the Lithuanian. “In general, Russians distrust the government, but they believe in the government’s motives for invading Ukraine.” According to him, this is the result of years of propaganda campaigns. “In 20 years, the West has become an enemy, and the West doesn’t seem to have noticed it over the years.”

After hundreds of conversations, Senūta estimates that two out of every three Russians support the Russian invasion of Ukraine. So he and his team still have millions of phone calls to regulate public opinion.

Customize playbook

The idea that change in Russia must come from the people is more widespread in Eastern Europe. For this reason, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as Poland, the Czech Republic and Finland have stopped issuing visas to Russian men. You must stay in Russia to force change is the mindset in countries that have experienced Russian oppression in recent history.

With every major development, Senūta has to adjust his scripts again, he says. “Since the so-called annexation of Ukrainian territories by Russia, I hear a lot that ‘Ukraine must stop attacking Russian territory’. We still have to figure out how to deal with that.”