Donbass: Difficulties in choosing

Do residents of Donbass want to become Russians

Residents of Donetsk are offended by Kyivans, they are afraid of “Bandera”, but most of them do not want to Russia. The New Times was versed in the intricacies of local political preferences

Pro -Russian demonstration at the building of the regional prosecutor's office. Donetsk, March 16, 2014

Donetsk is a large city by Ukrainian standards: the population almost reaches 1 million people. They frankly do not like the new Kyiv authority here - "they arranged lawlessness in the country, and now they can get out of the same." But to rallies for reuniting with Russia - and they went to Donetsk daily all last week, the main requirement: to hold a referendum on the Crimean model in the Donbass - for the most part they are not visited: such promotions collect a maximum of 2-3 thousand people. True, this is the data of the local police. And the Donetsk people themselves say that in reality, even fewer people go to pro -Russian rallies: they say that there are at least a third of them on each of them, and the most active citizens of the Russian Federation. They are called “Rostruks” here - by analogy with the “titles”, who, in the midst of the Ukrainian revolution, burned the cars of activists and broke shops of stores in Kyiv. And also - "Tourists of Putin."

In Donetsk, as well as to Kharkov and Lugansk, the “Rostings” were initially brought by buses from neighboring regions of the Russian Federation. “They got out of buses with the sixty-first region (I mean the number 61-the code of the Rostov region.-The NEW TIMESS) are already dumbfounded, the eyes are crazy, they begin to yell like the cut“ ra-si-sir ”! -says 32-year-old Donetsk, Victor, the owner of a small cafe. - But recently they began to come mainly on their cars, some of us are changing the rubber, they say, it comes out cheaper than at home. They stagger around the city, but no one lifts up. ”

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“They got out of buses with the sixty-first region, already obdated, the eyes are crazy, they begin to yell like the cut“ Ras-si, ras-si! ”

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“Journalists began to photograph the buses, so they replaced the Russian transport for the Russians,” the employee of the Donetsk city administration named Sergey grins (he refused to name the name).

In addition, more and more often people are on the pro -Russian rallies by buses without license plates from small towns and villages of Donetsk region. Sometimes rally - there were such cases - they break up shop windows, set fire and turn garbage tanks, beat glass in residential buildings ... Therefore, most Donetsk people prefer to leave the house only to work and to the nearest store. Most spend the evenings at home.

"Putin, help us!" - Processing activists call in front of foreign cameras. Donetsk, March 13, 2014
Fear and hatred

On March 13, a member of the rally “For the Unity of Ukraine”-22-year-old local resident Dmitry Chernyavsky died in Donetsk: he died in an ambulance carriage from a knife wound. “On Lenin Square, two rallies stood - Euromaidanists and supporters of the association with Russia,” says Sergey from the city administration. -The police provided the cordon between them, but at some point the “Russians” Cordon crushed and attacked the “Maidanyat”.

Now supporters of separatists are afraid of revenge. The main potential threat to them is ultras, fans of the Shakhtar football club. They began to support Euromaidan immediately after the rallies in Kyiv outgrew into clashes with the police, and in Donetsk the “Titles” began to attack disagreed with Yanukovych’s policies. Ultras defended the latter. “The fear of the Ultras revenge is another reason why the“ Rostiles ”stopped bringing in an organized manner by buses,” Sergei suggests.

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“I personally do not want to Russia, and no one wants to. Everyone knows that there is no freedom for people or business. Our eternal mess and that is much better than their order "

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On March 19, the head of the National Security Council of Ukraine, Andrei Parubiy, announced the intention of Kyiv to introduce a visa regime with Russia, which, they say, has already been given the order of the Ministry of Defense (the 20th Chipl Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk actually refuted Parubiy, saying that, before introducing visas, it was necessary to measure it “seven times”.-The NEW TIMES). The Donetsk city administration makes it clear that the visa regime with Russia is needed in many ways in order to complicate the transportation of Russian activists to the eastern regions of Ukraine. “It is they who are the main driving force of any pro -Russian rally: they start and warm up the crowd, and then they are the first to storm state institutions and post Russian flags on their roofs,” Sergey says. However, activists, according to him, “silently” are supported by thousands of Donetsk residents, although they are afraid to go out to rallies.

After the next rally on Lenin Square. Donetsk, March 9, 2014
By the way, a few days before the disposal of Parubiy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the lips of his speaker, Evgeny Dubinis, imposed responsibility for provocations in the southeastern regions in Russian citizens who organize in organizedly to the eastern regions of the country with strictly defined targets. According to supporters of Ukrainian unity, “Putin tourists” usually make up about 50% of the participants in the pro -Russian rallies. Even those Donetsk residents who periodically go to rallies for Russia agree with this figure.

“People are afraid with us. And the Russians are not afraid, because they know that no one will beat them. Therefore, among the participants in rallies-somewhere Fifty Fifi. Although, maybe two -thirds of the Donetsk ... it's hard to say. But there are really a lot of Russians who came here to support us. And they are not as Shugani as we are, ”says Donetsk student Artem. Personally, he wants to in Russia, because "there are many prospects and will not learn the Ukrainian language." According to him, there are many people like him in Donetsk, but they are afraid to go out onto the streets, because Bandera can "attack them at any moment."

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“People are afraid with us. And the Russians are not afraid, because they know that no one will beat them "

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But the general director of the Donbass Consulting League Boris Dudka has a different opinion: “Bandera? Yes, these are visiting Russians behave like savages. Now it is clear that in Russia they have lost a whole generation that is now being used against us. ”

After the battle of the 13th rallies in support of a single Ukraine in the city, there are almost no: people are afraid to resist the “Rostilers”. But thousands of local residents are recorded in the National Guard and united in “order protection groups” for patrolling streets in the evenings - as a rule, along with the police.

Donetsk rally: either for Russia, then for Ukraine. March 10, 2014
Against "Bandera" and the Kremlin

Despite the visually calm atmosphere, the air in Donetsk is electrified by political disputes. Most of the townspeople - against the "Kyiv junta" and the legitimacy of the power of Yatsenyuk - does not recognize Turchinov. The Donetsk residents also do not really hope for the presidential elections, scheduled for May 25. “It is clear that after everything that happened, one of the Westerners or Kyivans will win. I’m not sure that I’m already going to them at all, ”says Tatyana, 46-year-old merchandishers of the local supermarket, Tatyana.

When asked what the Donbass would like to get from Kyiv, the majority in Donetsk answers something like a correspondent of The NW Times 34-year-old entrepreneur Oleg, who sells car tires in his store: “We do not want to separate from Ukraine because we will live even worse in Russia, but no one will reckon with us either. But we want more rights, more self -government. We want to independently dispose of our budget, choose ourselves mayor and governor. We do not like appointments from Kyiv. ”

The police are distinguished by the fighters. Donetsk, March 9, 2014

But Svyatoslav, the owner of the three kiosks in Donetsk, “does not suit either Moscow or Kyiv”: “I personally do not want to Russia, and no one wants to. Everyone knows that there is no freedom for people or business. Our eternal mess is much better than their order. But in Kyiv they were already overwhelmed ... from Bandera, if they begin to stir up water here, we are also able to protect themselves, ”he says.

For unity with Russia in Donetsk, pensioners are mainly advocated. “My sister lives in Russia. She has a pension twice as high. And now they say that Ukraine is generally bankrupt. Is this, I already go to the block? We want to survive to Russia, ”explains 67-year-old Vera Vasilievna.

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"We want to go to Russia to survive"

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There are among the townspeople and those who support both the collegiality of Ukraine and the Euromaidan. “I went to work in the suburbs and went to Kyiv. I can compare, ”says 37-year-old painter Alexei Dikov. - Yes, they pay more in Russia, but the attitude there, as to complete insignificance. In Kyiv, people are softer, kinder. I think that you have to be with your own. ” And he adds: “This revolution - we needed it. Maybe the new ruler, knowing that he will repeat the fate of Yanukovych, will not pinch and rob the country so much. ”

Pro -Russian rally at the building of the Donetsk Regional Council, March 9, 2014 the word oligarch

The governor of the Donetsk region, Sergei Taruta, who was appointed after the revolution, is a billionaire, an authoritative businessman. He himself publicly admitted that he was asked to occupy the governor’s position by the “owner of the Donbass” oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. Both stand for a single Ukraine, and they listen to their opinion in Donetsk. “Rinat rebuilt the city, put it in order,” says 44-year-old Vladimir, a driver of the Donetsk bus. -There is now a blooming garden, not ruins, as it was in the 90s. And Rinat says that it is necessary to save the whole Ukraine. We respect and love him. Therefore, we don’t want to rebel. ”

From the question of the correspondent of The New Times, and who then goes to pro-Russian rallies and periodically storms the regional state administration, Vladimir dismissed-they say, “city crazy people”: “There is such a category of people who always want something. They probably think that they will earn more in Russia. They will not. We will not become Moscow, we will remain Donetsk. ”

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Governor of the Donetsk region Sergey Taruta is a billionaire, an authoritative businessman. He himself publicly admitted that he was asked to occupy the governor’s position by the “owner of the Donbass” oligarch Rinat Akhmetov

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After brutal clashes on March 13 (one deceased, more than 50 were injured), Rinat Akhmetov called on the townspeople "not to succumb to emotions" and remain "in a single, integral Ukraine." But the word oligarch this time did not take action. On March 16, the separatists stormed the prosecutor’s office and the SBU - they hoisted the flags of the Russian Federation over the buildings and put forward the main demand: to free the “People’s Governor” Pavel Gubarev, arrested by the Kyiv court for two months on suspicion of organizing riots and separatism. Then they tried to get into the Taruta Office, but the assault failed. But in the office of the Industrial Union of Donbass, which Taruta headed before joining the governor’s position, pro -Russian activists penetrated without problems - they arranged a tour of the offices there. In all these facts, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine began the investigation.

65-year-old Donetsk, Evgeny Batyukhov-on the site of the battle on March 13, 2014.

“Of course, they can investigate it in Kyiv as much as they like, but it is necessary to start with the police,” Sergei from the city administration complains. -When a massive fight begins somewhere in the city, police officers are simply watching it. Why? Yes, because the new and. O. They do not recognize the Minister of Internal Affairs of Arsen Avakov - he was here the governor, not to say that he enjoyed great authority. " It is no coincidence, according to Sergey, the Kyiv authorities decided to bring to the Donetsk region a police from Dnepropetrovsk and Kirovograd.

Nevertheless, separatist leaders are already feeling uncomfortable. Recently, the SBU workers “took” one of the leaders of the Public Organization “Donetsk Republic” Andrei Purgin - he faces imprisonment.

“My sister lives in Russia. She has a pension twice as high. And now they say that Ukraine is generally bankrupt. Is this, I already go to the block? "

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On March 15, a new public organization was created in Donetsk, which advocates the unity of Ukraine, - the Committee of the Patriotic Forces of Donbass (CPSD)*. And on the 20th, she demanded from the authorities the region to “urgently hang” Ukrainian flags for all state and communal buildings-“to raise the morale of patriotic citizens of Ukraine”.

However, the ex-governor of the Donetsk region Anatoly Bliznyuk does not believe in the repetition of the Crimean script in the Donbass. “In the Donetsk region, patriots of their native land and patriots of Ukraine live,” he says. - Yes, there are different moods, there are people who support Russia, but the people in the Donetsk region understands: Ukraine should be unified. And the state, for its part, should listen to the opinion of people, conduct decentralization. ”

The governor of Taruta, however, also says that the center should give the regions more authority. But just in case, it emphasizes: "We do not need federalization."

What will happen in the region and country, in Donetsk they do not want to make a guess. Many citizens hope that after the Crimean events, the region will give more rights in terms of self-government, perhaps some tax benefits. But the desire to separate from Ukraine is not yet visible.

Photos: Andrey Basevich/AP/East News, Sergey Gritz/AP/East News, Photomig/EPA/ITAR-TASS, Reuters, Stepan Kachur/Ukrainian photo/Photoxpress