I spoke on many demonstrations alongside him. The last one was in March this year when Stop the War and CND organised a protest against the war in Ukraine. His speech was very direct, using the example of Stanislav Petrov, the Russian military officer who helped to avert nuclear war in the 1980s when a malfunctioning early warning system suggested that missiles had been launched by the US against Russia. Petrov refused to retaliate thus preventing possible major escalation to full nuclear war. He regarded Petrov as a hero, and I thought particularly wanted to make this point both about the dangers of accidental triggering of nuclear war, but also to help counter the Russophobia growing as a result of Putin’s invasion.
