Stop gop

In numerous reports on the actions of pro -Russian separatists in southeast Ukraine, there are rarely attempts to figure out who these people are - or at least their leaders.

Before the fall of Yanukovych, the picture was clear. On the one hand, the Maidan, that is, the coalition of predominantly Ukrainian -language democratic and pro -Western political, public and religious organizations and the Ukrainian right -wing radicals joined them. On the other hand, the political association of Russian -speaking bureaucrats and crime, based in terms of street activity on paid gopniks - "Titusies". The main political figures on both sides were known long before revolutionary events. At the head of the "Maidan" were not people from the "Right Sector", as Russian propaganda said, but members of the parliament, the leaders of large political parties, including those who had experience in the government. Therefore, the overthrow of Yanukovych did not lead to institutional chaos in Kyiv, and the parliament, which almost completely retained the "home -made" composition, became the new real center of power.

Separatist movements in the southeast are not like the Maidan either in form or in fact. The Party of Regions, which, it would seem, was supposed to lead the "folk resistance", after the failure of the Kharkov congress, refused to play separatist games and condemned the Russian occupation of Crimea. Even in the Crimean parliament, the deputies did not show an independent separatist initiative: they accepted all their statements in the conditions of the already held occupation, apparently understanding the prospect of punishment for improper behavior.

Most of the chiefs of "militias" and "Guard", "People's Governors" and other leaders of separatist organizations in the southeast did not take part in the great policy of the Yanukovych's displacement. Only a few of them were deputies or any noticeable officials. Yes, and their age is unsalued - about thirty -looking in appearance. What are these people?

Interviewing for Lenta.ru "People's Governor" Donetsk Pavel Gubarev , journalist Ilya Azar in passing noted that 31 -year -old Gubarev was once a member of the RNE, and then - an active supporter (and even assistant) of the famous politician Natalia Vitrenko in Ukraine. Some Ukrainian activists posted photographic evidence of Gubarev’s participation in the training camp of the Belarusian RNU from the sub -subsidiary records in VKontakte. The "sofa analysts" in Runet doubted their authenticity. Then there was a video of Gubarev’s participation in the RNE meeting in Rostov. Those who did not want to believe, and this did not convince.

Probably, Gubarev himself was the first to refute the statement of Azar, and after his arrest that followed, his wife and associates soon, the benefit of statements, made several pieces a day for various reasons. But they said nothing. In the biography of the "People's Governor", his site claims that Gubarev did not serve in the army, but went under training under the leadership of Russian officers from special forces. However, in the Russian army it is not customary to just prepare civilians from another country. But what RNE and other Russian right -wing groups in their summer camps train with the help of their former and current special services officers who are sympathetic - this is well known. And the founder of Rne, Alexander Barkashov, was an instructor of hand -to -hand combat in the special forces, and now what right -winging group the warrant officer of special forces from the army or the FSB will be found everywhere.

It is quite combined with the ultranationalist views of Gubarev and his work in the progressive and socialist party. The head of this party, Natalya Vitrenko, known in Ukraine under the nickname "Konotop Witch", was perhaps the most famous in the country as a supporter of the association with Russia. Even the head of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Peter Simonenko in 2005 openly called Vitrenko and its party "pro -Russian collaborators."

Having survived the peak of popularity in the late 1990s, the party in recent years elated a miserable existence, not being represented in parliament. But Vitrenko distinguished herself in a different capacity. In early March, the chairman of the Association of Jewish organizations and communities of Ukraine Joseph Zisels, refuting the allegations of Russian propaganda about the anti -Semitism of the Maidanovites, said : “At the same time on the sites of such pro -Russian organizations as PSPU Natalia Vitrenko” and “Oplot”, we noticed a lot of anti -Semitic materials to incite hatred against the Maidan, inspired Jews ".

On April 6, Vitrenkovets Dmitry Nikonov was elected at the small -number rally by the People’s Governor of Nikolaev. The head of the Lugansk organization of the party Vitrenko, Alexander Kharitonov (arrested by the SBU on March 13), headed the Lugansk Guard - one of the largest separatist organizations of the Southeast. Alexander Kravtsov, also one of the creators of the Lugansk Guard, is also connected with Vitrenko. On his Facebook page, along with dozens of extremely aggressive posts, including threats to physical reprisals with the Kyiv junta, neo -Nazi and pagan symbolism is found. However, for a person, with the approval of the quoting texts of the neo -Nazi organization "Slavic Union", this is not surprising.

Kravtsov was one of the leaders of the organization "Young Guard of Lugansk." Two weeks ago, she had a VKontakte page (now it is closed). At first glance, rather typical moderate “nurses” are declarative statements about the protection of nature, collecting garbage on the city beach, congratulations to veterans, a trip of the group members to the Youth camp “Healthy Ukraine” ... Everything would look neutral if the head of the organization, deputy of the regional council from the Party of Regions, a graduate of the Military-Political School of Klinchaev was not arrested for the organization The capture by the organization of the regional administration and the coercion of the head of the administration to write a resignation application.

Having looked at the page of the Healthy Ukraine extreme camps, which was arranged last summer in Sudak (Crimea), you immediately understand what the "young guard of Lugansk" was being prepared for. For some groups "Parkour, overcoming the obstacles of physical and spiritual, airsoft, battles with laser weapons, the basics of intelligence, extreme protection, hand-to-hand combat and self-defense using spiritual Cossack and ancient Slavic systems", for others-the basics of television journalism: so that the young ladies can shoot and lay out the feats of the first group to the network. The page also has laid-back anti-Semitic and Russian-nationalist replicas and demotivators, portraits of Vitrenko.

The Eurasian Youth camp “Donuzlav” - yes, right with the view of the base (already former) of the Ukrainian Navy, has much more than a scope. In 2013, the event took place for the seventh time. The organizers are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Russian Mir Foundation, the Gorchakova Foundation, the Institute of the CIS countries, the Communist Party of Ukraine. "The camps (cadets) of the camps became more than 260 boys and girls" from 25 regions of Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Belarus, Moldova, Transnistria, South Ossetia ... Speaking to the cadets of the camp, director of the CIS Institute of Constantine, Konstantin Zatulin, noted: "We are residents of the CIS countries - we are different. We have our historical path. The CIS is our continent! It is necessary to preserve the memory of our general past and strive to build a common future that belongs to the young! .. In the process of post -Soviet integration, Ukraine, following Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, should make its geopolitical choice. ”

And to consolidate the geopolitical choice in the camp "As part of the sports and patriotic training of cadets, shooting competitions were held, the motto of which was the slogan:" I can shoot accurately. NATO - stop! ".

If Ukraine was represented in the camp by its Communists, then Russia brought as lecturers its nationalists, including the head of the Black-Hundred Orthodox website of the Russian Line, Alexander Stepanov. Among the speakers was the "hero" of Runet Kirill Frolov, who previously called himself the head of the department of Ukraine Zatulinsk Institute of the CIS countries. Frolov’s pages in the living magazine and Facebook are included in the network of information exchange of most noticeable figures in the separatist movement.

This is a closed nucleus consisting of about three dozen people, long and well -known among themselves. They can be divided into two categories. The first is mainly young and unprofessional PR managers and journalists who previously worked with Vitrenko (like the same Gubarev) or with Viktor Medvedchuk. The latter, who at one time, the head of the administration of President Kuchma, is, according to numerous evidence, the chief adviser to Vladimir Putin on the Ukrainian issue. Many of them in recent years have been trained in various pro -Russian camps both in Ukraine itself and, for example, on Seliger. The second category is former and current employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. A typical character in this regard is Evgeny Zhilin, who headed the most high -profile Kharkov pro -Russian organization "rebuff". In the ideological attitude, these people are balancing between neo -Nazism and non -stop in the spirit of Sergei Kurginyan and Nikolai Starikov.

The use of the St. George ribbon gives them, in their opinion, a halo of wrestlers with fascism (although from the point of view of Russian legislation to combat extremism, most of these "anti -fascists" should be subjected to a square). The main thing, however, is in another. Firstly, during the last one and a half decades, the suppression of the legally acting black -browned organizations such as the Barkashovites, both states - both Russia and Ukraine - apparently overlooked the spread of neo -Nazi infection inside the power structures, especially in various special forces. I repeat: in every large disclosed neo -Nazi terrorist group in Russia, there must be a valid or former representative of the special services - and not as an agent under the cover.

The history of the southeastern divisions of the Ukrainian Berkut, which, unlike the fighters of internal troops, fought with the Maidanians from ideological, Russophilian considerations, and now he plants a throat on the Internet on anti-Semitic slogans, suggests that in recent years, the cross-border ties of Russian neo-Nazis from power structures have also developed. There was also the story of Alexei Korshunov, who took part in the murder of Stanislav Markelov and who died from the explosion of his own grenade in Zaporozhye in 2011. A native of Moscow, a former Marine Corps fighter in Sevastopol, a former FSB ensign, decorated with swastika tattoos. How he ended up in Ukraine and who helped him is still unknown.

Secondly, the Ukrainian authorities and the public looked at the focused formation by Russian state structures of a fairly powerful network of non-Niza activists of a pro-Russian orientation, not only professing Russophilian ideas, but also prone to radical actions. However, they did not appear from scratch. Obviously, by the second half of the 2000s, not only in Ukraine, but also in other countries of the post-Soviet space, a whole layer of Russian-speaking youth, who sincerely hate the state in which they have to live, grew up. You can talk about the reasons for this hatred for a long time. It is clear that it is primarily professed by the deliberate losers with minimal education and unenviable life prospects (even those who have received a higher education are unlikely to count on something serious in their meager intellectual potential). The problem is that this hatred is far from limited to polemic on social networks and wearing ridiculous costumes with Russian Olympic symbols. The mass riots in Tallinn in 2007, the current Ukrainian events demonstrate that the destructive potential of Russian -speaking gopniks is great. And they are the power that the current Russian authorities can easily manipulate with the help of Russian television.

What lesson from Ukrainian events can other post -Soviet countries extract? A temporary ban on the main channels of Russian television, which went to Latvia and Lithuania, is a useful measure. Even more important to me seems to me the Latvian initiative to organize a specialized television channel for the entire Baltic Russian -speaking audience. Multipulturalism here, of course, is forced, like any multiculturalism. Ethnic minorities - more precisely, their weakest and most not prone to social adaptation - should not feel driven into the language and cultural ghetto and hopefully look at the rich and powerful, as it seems to them, the country of their native language. Then this country will have less temptation to use "compatriots" as a consumable material in geopolitical games.