"Attract collective guilt"

Civil activist Yuri Izotov about working in a volunteer camp in Ukraine and threats by the FSB

Activist Yuri Isota - 20 years, he lives in Yekaterinburg. In 2014, when the military conflict began in the southeast of Ukraine, Yuri was barely 18 years old. Then his civic activity began: campaigns on anti -war processions, communication with Ukrainian volunteers, and detention on protests. And as a result - misunderstanding from the closest environment, conflicts with parents. In July 2016, Yuri decided to go to the Luhansk region to help local residents restore their lives destroyed by the war and see their lives in eastern Ukraine with their own eyes. On the way back, the purpose of his visit caused many questions from Russian border guards and FSB officers. The activist was threatened by cornering of a passport and initiation of a criminal case.

Yuri Isotov spent a week in the city of Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region in the volunteer camp "We are building Ukraine together." Troubles began on the way home-during the passage of the Ukrainian-Russian border. According to Yuri, his T -shirt with the image of a trident - the national symbol of Ukraine could provoke Russian border guards:

They moved to the threats. They began to say: we can delay you even longer for three hours, we can ruin the passport, we can initiate a matter

- First we went to the Ukrainian checkpoint, there, probably, we were holding an hour or two, but from the part of the Ukrainian border guards and customs officers there were no complaints to me. Then we drove up to the Russian checkpoint. It was the Bryansk region. At this time, there was a T -shirt with the Ukrainian emblem at that time. I think this could to some extent to provoke the Russian checkpoint. I come up with my things to Russian passport control. There the employee takes my passport from me, looks. I asked me - where am I coming from and why. I told him that I was going from a volunteer camp in Ukraine. Participated in construction work to restore housing. After that, he asked me to go with him to some office to another employee of the border service, captain of the FSB. At first he also asked me where he went and why. And then some such very strange questions of a personal nature went-whether you live one where you work, who your parents are. I did not answer these questions, because I don’t understand what they have to do at crossing the border, and referred to the 51st article of the Constitution.

The customs officer said to me: "If you fan in Ukraine, so and get there"

I asked what quality I am sitting here, why they are holding me. The border guard began to refer to the fact that some kind of government decree came out, according to which they have the right to those who should be across the border should interrogate and keep me for up to three hours. And if the bus leaves, how will I get later? The border guard said that this was not his business. We sat so, bickering. Then another employee of the border service with some kind of more shoulder straps went into the office, I do not understand. They moved to the threats. They began to say: we can delay you for three more hours for three hours, we can ruin the passport, we can initiate a matter.

- How long did they eventually have kept you in their office?

- About an hour. Then they let me go, but at the customs I was forced to open a suitcase and a backpack and show each thing. The customs officer said to me: "If you fan in Ukraine, so and get there." And when I understood according to the documents that I was from Yekaterinburg, said something about the "liberals hanging out in the Yeltsin Center."

- As far as I know, then you were not met on the bus later?

- Yes. The bus driver got angry that because of me they stood on the border for so long. Then one of the passengers rushed at me with his fists. Thank God the situation has not reached a fight. I drove to Moscow a whole and unharmed.

- And the claims of this passenger were that you detained him, or in the fact that you support Ukrainian activists?

“Because I detained him.” I talked about Ukraine with another passenger. Also an interesting story. He is a builder. I went to work in Russia. He himself from Vinnitsa is the central Ukraine. And he told me how good Putin is. It was unusual to hear this from a resident of Ukraine. It is strange that our Russian propaganda reaches them. I was surprised, to be honest.

- And what did you do in the volunteer camp?

Yuri Isotov repairs an apartment in Severodonetsk

- Initially, this camp arose in the east of Ukraine, in Kramatorsk. But now he works all over Ukraine. The volunteer camp is called "Building Ukraine together." It is carried out by a charitable organization called the "Lviv Educational Fund". There were already several shifts of this camp. It has been held since 2014. Since spring, volunteers were gained, you could choose the city you will go to. So I chose Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region. The change of the camp lasted a week. There were several objects in the city on which it was necessary to work. For the first two days I painted the walls and ceiling in an apartment in a hostel for a large family, and the remaining four days worked in the village of Borovskoye, this is not far from Severodonetsk. There is a house in which a disabled woman lives, who herself cannot walk. We made her a ramp, so that she could call in the house, made a concrete path in the garden and updated the facade, put the windows new. In addition to the work, there was still some kind of cultural program. We were taken on a tour of Severodonetsk, local attractions were shown. It was quite interesting for me to go there, see everything with my own eyes.

- Severodonetsk is in the zone controlled by the Ukrainian authorities?

- Yes, about 30 km from the demarcation line with the so -called LPR.

- You probably talked with local people there. What is their attitude to the conflict, to Russia and to Ukraine?

With my personal participation, I wanted to atone for collective guilt for what our state with Ukraine has done

- I met different people there. One man with whom I went there on the bus was abruptly against Ukraine. Compared Ukrainian soldiers with the Germans, with soldiers of fascist Germany. The woman, whose first two days we worked, told us that she doesn’t care who they will have in the city - Ukraine or “LPR”. She wants just the war to stop, stop shooting. She believes that from these wars and revolutions they only became worse. The communal apartment increased, gas prices. I also talked with refugees who ran away from the territory controlled by the "LPR". They are just sharply for Ukraine. And they told some horrors about what is happening in the territory controlled by the "LPR". Suppose a person in the "LPR" can be arrested and put into the commandant’s office simply because he was walking along the street without a passport. They talked about how in the anthracite of the Luhansk region on the people of people the Cossacks poured whips, some medieval wildness. Those who left the "LPR", they are just, according to my feelings, sharply for Ukraine. But in general, I met different opinions.

- Yuri, what did you, a citizen of Russia, a resident of Yekaterinburg, forced you to go to the Lugansk region, to Severodonetsk to engage in such volunteer activities?

Yuri Izotov at an anti -war action

-Firstly, I was forced to go that I took part in anti-war protests, I went to all these "marches of the world", went to various pickets. Accordingly, I wanted to see this whole situation with my own eyes in order to compare with the ideas that I had before. Secondly, with my personal participation, I wanted to attend collective guilt for what our state with Ukraine has done. The contribution, of course, is small, scanty, but at least something can be done. I was also prompted by the fact that I was familiar with other volunteers before. In particular, I personally know Varvara Darevskaya, who carries letters from Ukraine to Russia and vice versa.

- Your ideas about the situation in eastern Ukraine have not changed after your trip there?

- Well, I used to know that in the "LPR" and "DPR" bandits. This was confirmed. But if we talk about the inhabitants of those territories that were occupied, and then they managed to return them back, then I was somewhat disappointed with communication with them. I heard the same propaganda theses that television broadcasts in Russia: about slaves, about punishers. It was somehow strange to hear this from the inhabitants of Ukraine.

- In your opinion, their judgments are formed by the Russian media, which reach there, and are based on their life experience?

- I believe that the media influence is to a greater extent. Because I heard these theses literally literally, as they were said on TV and on the Internet on some pro-Russian sites. If it were an eyewitness story about the actually taking place, these would be other words - details, facts. And when the propaganda stamps simply repeat literally, how can this be based on real events?

- You said that perhaps the border guards clung to you because you had a T -shirt with a trident. Do you wear some such t-shirts or other distinctive signs in Yekaterinburg? Have you encountered some problems when you openly demonstrated your attitude to the Ukrainian conflict?

- I wear during street shares, mainly. I do not particularly experience aggression by other people in Yekaterinburg. People are quite apolitical, they think more about some of their household problems. Well, in the Urals, somehow there was always, probably, more early than in other regions. There was a couple of episodes on the pickets, when supporters of Novorossiya approached us, threw themselves into a fight, torn posters, etc. But these were precisely the ideological supporters who specially came to tear off. And so that in ordinary life, I can’t say that.

-And you did not have conflicts with the immediate environment because of the "Ukrainian question"?

After my first detention in the police, my mother almost killed me

- arose. My parents, my relatives support the current government. When I talked with his relatives on political topics, conflict situations arose. Now I am in conversations with them generally trying not to affect the policy, because I understand that this is useless. I tried to somehow convince them, give some arguments, but now I realized that it was useless, unfortunately.

- And they are not trying to convince you not to participate in pickets, not to go to Ukraine?

- Trying, of course. After my first detention in the police, my mother almost killed me.

-Until 2014, before the start of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, did you participate in some kind of civil activity?

- I was still too small then. I am now only 20 years old. During the protests of 2011, I was only 15. I then consciously could not very much take part. Maybe I read something on the Internet, but nothing more. But here is some kind of political action-this is probably the "march of the world" in 2014.

-Do you have any concerns that you are now registered in some law enforcement agencies after that case on the Russian-Ukrainian border?

For promotions in support of "Prisoners of Bolotnaya"

- Even before this case, I was registered. Employees of the Center for Combating Extremism once came to my studies. One more time, the district police officer came to me at the registration address. So I know that I was there before. The police detained me.

- There are cases when civil activists in connection with fears about criminal prosecution chose life abroad. Have you ever considered the possibility of emigration for yourself?

- I cannot decide what they will do for me for me for me. Yes, everything can be. I don't want to sit in prison. If there is a very bad situation, I will probably choose this option. It seems to me that I will bring more benefits to free.