You're reading: Ukrainians in Russia feel chill after Russia’s annexation of Crimea

The lives of two million Ukrainians in Russia have become more difficult after Russia’s seizure of Crimea and a new government in Kyiv that the Kremlin does not recognize as legitimate, after the EuroMaidan Revolution toppled pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22.

But some
Ukrainians in Russia say that life was never easy for them. Ukrainians
constitute some 2 million – or roughly 2 percent – of the Russian Federation’s
143 million people.

While everyday
life and communication with friends and relatives has not changed much, some
Ukrainians say they face negative attitudes toward Ukraine as a sovereign nation.
The animosity is fueled by unrelenting Kremlin propaganda that is anti-Western
and anti-Ukrainian and reflected in Russia’s state-controlled or state-censored
news media.

Nowadays in
Russia, Ukrainians have neither national schools nor any Ukrainian press.

“While we are
the largest diaspora in Russia, the attitude towards us has always been the
worst,” says Victor Hirzhov, an executive secretary of the Ukrainian Congress
in Russia, co-chairman of the regional public organization Ukrainians of
Moscow.

Hirzhov
explains that, in 2010, Moscow police confiscated 50 Ukrainian fiction books from
the only Ukrainian library. Officers justified the seizure by saying the books contain
signs of ethnic radicalism, which is against the law.

“The new
turn of Russia’s imperial syndrome exploded at the beginning of the annexation
of Crimea,” he said. Hirzhov’s everyday life remained the same but he feels
that in public sphere the negative attitude toward Ukrainians grew worse
considerably. “Now it’s common to hear offensive words against

Ukrainians.
We are called Banderites and fascists,” Hirzhov says, a reference to iconic
Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera (1909-1959), who is accused by the Kremlin
of collaborating with Nazi Germany during World War II. “I personally heard
many times how Russians called on to annex not only Crimea but the whole of
Ukraine.”

Ihor
Rozdobudko, a 43-year-old Ukrainian who lives in Moscow and who is editor of the
website “Kobza. Ukrainians in Russia,” said: “The most difficult part [of living
in Russia] is arrogance of Russians towards Ukrainians that has recently become
even greater.”

Now,
Rozdobudko says, even talking about Crimea as a Ukrainian territory can be criminally
prosecuted in Russia as an act of separatism. Ukrainians who disagree with
Russia’s official interpretation of the EuroMaidan Revolution and the Russian takeover
of Crimea could face persecution.

Stefan
Panyak, a professor of geology at Ural State Mining University who has been
living in Russian city of Yekaterinburg for the last 50 years, is worried about
losing his job.

“The rector
of the university is under pressure to get rid of me,” Panyak said. “I can be fired
because of my public activity.”

During the
EuroMaidan protests in Ukraine, the scholar spoke on local TV criticizing
anti-Ukrainian propaganda on Russian national TV. Panyak has not decided what
to do if he loses his job.

“I will
have to accept it as I cannot leave Russia where my five children and 12 grandchildren
live,” he said.

Valentyn
Hrytsenko, the account director of Prodigi Digital Agency who has been living
in Moscow for almost a year but who comes to Kyiv twice a month, said: “As the Crimean
annexation began it became harder to pass through passport control on
Ukrainian-Russian border. After the last political events the risk that I will
not pass the border continues to rise.”

Hrytsenko
says it became harder for him to do business in Moscow as his colleagues who
are Ukrainian citizens are prohibited to enter Moscow business centers. In
Russia, security at business centers requires people to show their passports
before entering, making it easy to detect Ukrainian passport holders.

“There is
an unofficial rule not to let Ukrainians in, we have to meet with our clients
in cafes,” Hrytsenko added.

Ukrainians
say these days ordinary Russians pay more interest to them when they find out
they are from Ukraine.

“Russians
keep asking me about what is happening in Ukraine all the time,” says Nino
Siriyan, a young pediatrician from Dnipropetrovsk. “They are convinced that
anarchy and war are in Kyiv, and become very surprised when I tell them that’s
not true.”

Kyivan Ivan
Antonenko came to Russia only three weeks ago to work in retail business.
Things have been going well at work for Antonenko, but he says he is “fed up”
with the atmosphere in Russia now comparing it to a police state.

“I have a
feeling that I got into one big anti-EuroMaidan. I want to come back to Ukraine
as soon possible,” he added.

Some even
decided to stay home and not move to Russia because of its aggression in
Crimea. IT specialist Dmytro Kotulev cancelled his plans to move to Moscow for
work in April. He decided to stay home because of Russia’s breach of Ukraine’s
territorial integrity.

“Going to
work to Moscow now means bringing benefit to those people who support Putin’s aggression
against Ukraine. It means to  work for
aggressor and invader,” Kotulev said.

Hirzhov
from the Ukrainian Congress in Russia is convinced that the difficult
Ukrainian-Russian relationship affects Russian attitudes towards Ukrainians in
their midst.

“If social
and economic situation in Ukraine improves, and Russia recognizes Ukraine as an
equal partner, then the status of Ukrainians in Russia will get better,” he
believes.

Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be
reached at [email protected]