One can only hope that, after his spirited exchange with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on May 29, Russian rock star Yuri Shevchuk remains in good health.
Shevchuk, who has a history of using his songs to criticize the state, took a rare opportunity to publicly criticize Putin about the depth of corruption and lack of freedoms in his country.
“Do you have a plan for serious, sincere, honest liberalization and democratization of our country, so that state organizations do not strangle, so that we stop being afraid of the policemen on the streets?” Shevchuk asked a somewhat stunned Putin at a charity event for children with cancer in St. Petersburg, Russia. “The protesting electorate is growing and you know it. Many are unhappy with the current situation.”
Putin responded to Shevchuk much in the same way Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych did when I asked him on May 27 during his visit to Lviv to respond to charges that his ideological policies were tearing Ukraine apart. Both leaders rambled on about bettering the economic situation in their respective fiefdoms without really addressing the questions so critical to millions in these former Soviet states — those of democracy, human dignity and freedom.
In Putin’s case, the prime minister told Shevchuk he was not opposed to street protests as long as people were not simply coming out “to make a scene or promote themselves, but are saying concrete, relevant things, highlighting sore points, then what’s bad in that?”
Then he sarcastically thanked Shevchuk. Yanukovych was even more dismissive – he ignored the question and suggested the people who came out to protest his visit had been hired to cause trouble.
In watching the 10-minute Putin-Shevchuk exchange, which was posted on the Ukrainska Pravda website (http://blogs.pravda.com.ua/authors/leschenko/4c02f005c7c66/), I couldn’t help but think about Natalia and Rostyk, a young couple from St. Petersburg I met at a small family-run restaurant recently in Venice. A conversation that lasted a few hours over several liters of red wine underscored why so many Russians have been unable to sum up the courage to protest Putin’s policies, and provided a picture of the life that awaits Ukraine if it forges too close of relationship with its eastern neighbor.
“People in Russia are scared,” said Natalia, 27. (So they don’t have trouble at home, I won’t use Natalia’s and Rostyk’s last names). “They live in fear every day. Nothing is secure in our country, not jobs, not real estate, not life itself. People won’t speak up because they are afraid of losing their jobs, they are afraid of losing their homes. The police are unscrupulous; they take bribes and don’t help you. There is no criticism of the government on television; we get commercials and happy shows. We have no future in Russia. We live in a police state.”
Much of the fear is because Putin, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Russian energy giant, Gazprom, along with the man who runs it, Alexei Miller, control everything.
“Did you know Miller just built himself a villa?” Natalia asked. “There are signs everywhere in Russia that say, ‘Gazprom creates prosperity.’ I know it creates prosperity — for Putin, for Medvedev, for Miller. Ok, I’m glad for them, but where is my piece of bread?”
She said Western analysts who believe Medvedev is more liberal than Putin and wants to introduce a democratic society are wrong. The relationship between the two men is good cop, bad cop.
“There is no difference between the two. They are all corrupt,” she said. Natalia paused for a long moment and took a sip of wine. “We know Putin’s history. Someone who was in the KGB has no moral authority to run a nation.”
Boris Nemtsov, the Russian opposition figure who has appeared on several political talk shows in Ukraine, is not seen by the masses in Russia. We hear only what the government wants us to hear,” she said. “I only know what is happening in the world because I am able to go to Europe. I read the newspapers here.”
Rostyk and Natalia were on their first visit to Venice; early the next morning they were planning to leave for Florence. They were able to visit Italy because the Finns had given them a one-year Schengen visa.
“The Finns have a policy when it comes to issuing visas,” said Rostyk, who has family in eastern Ukraine. “They say we can travel around Europe, as long as we spend half of our time in Finland.”
It’s a policy that makes economic sense, he said. Prices have become so high in St. Petersburg that many residents take weekend trips to Finland so they can stock up on basic necessities. “The prices are cheaper there,” she said.
Natalia said she would like to have a baby, but the economy in Russia is so bad she is afraid to even try.
“How can you support a family on 200-300 euros a month? How can you afford to pay a mortgage [with a] 30 percent [interest rate]?”
Many of Natalia’s contemporaries have given up on their homeland and want to leave. They refuse to buy property in St. Petersburg’s overpriced real estate market because they fear those homes could be confiscated if they go against the state.
Natalia said she loves her country, but also wants to leave. She said she could move to Ukraine, because her family owns property in Crimea – “a lot of Russians do” – but worries about a rollback in reforms in Ukraine.
“How do we know they won’t take away our property now with your new president?” she asked.
It is true that many Russians support the policies of Putin/Medvedev, Rostyk and Natalia said. But this is because they are so closed off from the rest of the world, they don’t know any better.
“In Russia, America is the enemy again,” said Natalia, who spent time in the United States as an exchange student years ago. “First we were friends, now everything America does is bad.”
Many Russians do welcome closer relations with Ukraine. Before they start emulating their eastern neighbor, the question Ukrainians should ask themselves is what type of future they envision for themselves.
“Do you really want to live like us?” Natalia asked.
Kyiv Post staff writer Natalia A. Feduschak can be reached at [email protected]
