Los Angeles-born Michael Perry isn’t a politician, but the Kyiv-based construction company owner is convinced that he can be helpful in restoring the balance of justice in the world. Together with like-minded friends he set up Red Card Russia, a grass-roots campaign aimed at getting Russia expelled from this year’s World Cup soccer tournament. It also wants to take away Russia’s right to host the tournament in 2018.
It’s
not the sport of soccer that motivates the president of a Perry Construction.
It’s politics.
It
all started in late February, when Russian-backed militants seized Crimea’s
parliament in Simferopol, which ultimately ended with the peninsula’s
annexation. “I was frustrated that the best I could do to help the fight
against Russia was stating my opinions on Facebook,” he recalls.
As
a supporter of the Euromaidan revolution that toppled ex-President Viktor
Yanukovych, Perry wanted to act more.
The
idea of Red Card Russia emerged as the most exciting and one that had the most
chances for success. “The World Cup tournament is a celebration of the global
community. It is peaceful international interaction of mutual respect and
diversity,” Perry explains. “And what would people think seeing a military
aggressor at the World Cup?”
The
movement has a two-pronged strategy, says another initiative coordinator Paul
Niland, a co-owner of PAN Publishing, which publishes What’s On magazine
in Ukraine. The first one is to ban Russia from playing in this year’s
World Cup in Brazil. The second is to take away its hosting rights for the 2018
World Cup.
Niland,
a lifelong soccer fan, knows the universal nature of this game well.
“We
chose this idea because anybody knows football, it is loved around the
world and so this is something that can have a high profile, this is a message
that many people can understand,” he says. “One of FIFA’s (world soccer
governing body) mottos is ‘My game is fair play’. But no fair play is coming
from Russia.”
Social
media is used to garner publicity. Through special pages in Facebook and
Twitter, the online activists spread information and organize rallies
worldwide. Red Card Russia protests were already held in Warsaw, Berlin and
Zurich.
“When
we started there were around ten of us,” says Perry.
Now
a few dozen dedicated volunteers make regular contributions to creating a website,
promote online communities, organize twitter storms and protests.
Another instrument used by the activists is an online petition
demanding that FIFA strip Russia of the privilege to host the 2018 soccer
tournament.
Perry
says that when community grows bigger, their next steps would be to lobby the
World Cup sponsors and media partners, to seek people inside FIFA and to ask
them to help. He also plans to organize protests of sponsors and media partners
who oppose suspension of Russia.
“It
is a long-term strategy, and some might think that it is a long time away.
But it is now that budgets are allocated,” Niland explains. “So it is now that
people are sitting and thinking how to steal as much of this money as they can.
And this money is basically stolen from the Russian people.”
Niland
hopes that the campaign affects ordinary Russian citizens. “Everyday Russians aren’t
making these political decisions, but it is everyday Russians that believe the
lies of the propaganda,” he says. “It is a crazy idea with very little chance
of success, but it is something that should be put out there, should be
discussed, and should be debated.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana
Mamchenkova can be reached at [email protected].
