Olive Allen, a Russian citizen and artist who has lived in the United States for over 11 years, burned her home country’s passport with the aim of raising awareness and donations for the Ukrainian military conflict.
Allen described herself as a “child of modern Russia,” claiming that the country will always be a part of her identity, but she chose to cut ties with it due to its recent actions in Ukraine. Allen burned her Russian passport, which she said was the only copy she had, in front of the Russian Federation Consulate General in New York City, and intended to sell the footage as a nonfungible token (NFT), with the revenues going to humanitarian assistance in Ukraine.
Allen, who has been working in the crypto world since early 2018 after the December 2017 Bitcoin (BTC) bull run, said she decided to burn her passport because she couldn’t see herself returning to the nation under its current administration. She said that she wanted to dispel the idea that all Russians were in favour of military action against Ukraine. She said that she knew people in the country who had been “brainwashed to the point of no return.”
On Friday, the auction for her burning passport NFT went live on the SuperRare marketplace. Allen said that the proceeds from the sale would be used to directly contribute ETH to Save the Children, an organisation dedicated to assisting children all over the globe who are victims of human trafficking, early marriage, inability to receive an education, and violence.
Allen said that she preferred to contribute donations to humanitarian causes rather than the military. Save the Children is currently accepting crypto contributions in BTC and ETH through the charity fundraising site Giving Block for the approximately 7.5 million children “caught in the crossfire of violence” in Ukraine. The NFT artist said that by publicly burning her passport, she was essentially making it unsafe to return home by expressing her dissatisfaction with the government.
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