Anna Mazanik recounts receiving a request from Greenpeace Russia to write to Yevgeny Vitishko, an environmental activist imprisoned for opposing environmental destruction in the North Caucasus linked to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The letter grapples with the difficulty of finding hope in such a bleak situation, drawing on Russian postmodernist writer Victor Pelevin’s idea that visible oppression can paradoxically offer hope by giving purpose to resistance. Despite the overwhelming global environmental crisis, the author suggests that focusing on tangible local issues and political corruption can provide motivation and a sense of purpose, even if broader systemic problems remain unresolved.