Oleg Khalyavin runs OKVintageCamera in the Russian city of Yoshkar-Ola. He has a very good reputation both as an ace camera repairman and straight businessman. When I was looking for a decent Soviet camera I contacted him a couple of times and he was very helpful. Given the terrible events in Ukraine and the resulting Western sanctions I wondered if his business was still running and so logged onto his website. This is what I found.

This is a pretty courageous statement given overall Russian public opinion and the state’s reprisals against protest. I hope that we can all spare a thought for Oleg and his like-minded compatriots as they struggle to come to terms with their government’s terrible war.