“Some shout: “Murderer!”, others - “Traitor!”

Can you please explain how you feel about what is happening in Ukraine and in our country?

Everyone always and everywhere has an extremely negative attitude towards war. The question now is how to stop this process.

Now there are a lot of experts who tell me, for example: “You could not help but understand that by recognizing the DPR, you are unleashing the Third World War.” This is nonsense, to be honest. In hindsight, everyone is smart, everyone knows, but in fact it’s enough to look at all the official statements that sounded either in the State Duma or in the Federation Council. Everywhere it was about peacekeepers, about negotiations and about other such methods of solving problems. Even the issue of the territorial boundaries of the DNR and LNR, which do not coincide with their administrative boundaries as regions, as President Putin said, was a subject of negotiations in the future. That Ukraine is not ready to discuss it now, but in the future it can.

When the State Duma considered the issue of appealing to the president about the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, it was the experience of South Ossetia and Abkhazia that was considered, when Russian troops entered there, recognition [of their independence by the Russian Federation] followed, and peace came after that. Therefore, it was assumed that the actions of the Russian Federation would imply military assistance to a certain extent, but the escalation of the situation, if it happens, will [only] be in response to some actions on the part of Ukraine. There was some kind of plan, if not for a peaceful settlement, then at least with some kind of consistent logic.

In my opinion, it is sad that the new status of the republics was not given the opportunity to work, [there was no attempt] to enter into any negotiation relations [with Ukraine] and use one hundred percent of the possibilities of a peaceful settlement.

It is not entirely clear to me what exactly happened when the concept of a peaceful settlement ended with the decision to start hostilities. I thought about what could be that trigger, that “casus belli” (Latin casus belli - a formal reason for declaring war - Approx. "Cold") , which changed everything in one day on the 24th. I assume that this could be a statement by President Zelensky about the desire to possess nuclear weapons (the President of Ukraine in this speech did not talk about plans to develop nuclear weapons, but threatened to withdraw from the package agreements provided for by the Budapest Memorandum, according to which Kiev renounced nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees from Russia, the US and the UK. - Note "Cold") . President Putin in his televised address says: "We have heard it." And with such rather harsh intonations.

I expect that some evidence will be presented that Ukraine really, for example, was secretly engaged in uranium enrichment or was developing some other plans. I do not want my call for peace to be interpreted as support for Ukraine and its armed forces. Of course, when there is a war, I am on the side of the soldiers of my country. But I just don't want either of them to die. And especially civilians. Therefore, in my opinion, negotiations are inevitable and the Russian side should initiate them.

How was the decision to vote for the LPR and DPR made in the Communist Party faction? Was it the decision of the leadership of the faction that you need to vote "for"?

- This decision was taken unanimously, it was a long-standing initiative of the Communist Party. I share it. While still a deputy of the Samara Duma in 2014, I organized a rally with the slogan “For the support of Crimea and Sevastopol. For the DNR and LNR. I believe that the recognition of the DPR and LPR back in 2014 could have stopped the war.

In the Communist Party faction, everyone was unanimous that the DPR and LPR must be protected and that the Russian Federation must become the shield that will not allow Ukraine to continue shelling. But a ground operation, which is a priori associated with death, with great casualties, especially for the attacking side, is an extreme measure.

I would like to remind you that the question of bringing in troops is the prerogative of the Federation Council, not the State Duma. The Duma rather made political statements, and the Federation Council made a decision on consent to the use of Russian armed forces abroad. I don't know if there was some kind of closed discussion where the details of the plan were revealed to the senators, what this consent is taken for.

Commenting on your position on the events in Ukraine, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said that you and Smolin did not fully understand the situation. Did someone from the leadership of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation speak to you and ask you to change your position?

Yes, they talked to me. It is possible that the situation will be discussed at the collegiate bodies of the party leadership next week in Moscow.

I tried my best - I tried to explain the position, including to my voters. Because I was elected in a single-member district, people voted for me personally. In this regard, I have a lot of voters of different political views, starting with supporters of "Smart Voting" and ending with a completely different spectrum - communists, patriots, supporters of new socialism. The bulk of people are not politicized at all, conditionally grandparents.

Now everyone is ready to cut each other's throats, and this happened instantly. For the fact that I voted for the recognition of the LPR and the DPR, an avalanche of accusations fell upon me that I unleashed a war, how will I look into the eyes of mothers later. When I announced that I was in favor of a speedy end to the war, patriots attacked me, figuratively speaking. On the website of the Tsargrad channel, which is actually ideologically close to me in many respects, an article was published called “Communist deputy went over to the West: Putin’s 'knife in the back' flew out of the State Duma.” Nonsense. Some shout: "Killer!", Others - "Traitor!".

Before the Duma voted for the ratification of the treaties, at a meeting of the faction on February 22, I argued that the recognition of the DNR and LNR would be followed by large-scale Western sanctions. It was clear that this would hit the standard of living of people, which is already low. I said that for the support of Crimea, the authorities paid off the people by raising the retirement age, and we, the Communists, must now clearly formulate the requirements for the authorities. What slogans will we follow tomorrow, if hostilities begin, what will we bring to Ukraine? “For the Motherland, for Stalin” they will not shout. Then why? For Abramovich's yacht?

There can be no unity between the beggar and the oligarch. Therefore [I said that] the government must now literally make a revolution from above, because otherwise it will happen from below. It is necessary to return to the previous terms of the retirement age, a progressive scale of taxation, it is necessary to write off debts on numerous loans, demand an end to repressions and political amnesty, and stop the destruction of local self-government. It is necessary to stop the persecution of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation: when the Communist Party supports the country's foreign policy, and our comrades are in prison, they are deprived of the opportunity to engage in political activities.

Putin in a country at war, which is in isolation, has no other way than to turn into Stalin. And Stalin is a communist. That is, social changes are inevitable - or Russia will be split.

I didn't say that anti-war sentiment in Russia needs to be silenced with money and increased benefits. But in Russia there is a very powerful fifth column, the pro-Western opposition. This group, whose interests have recently been expressed by supporters of Alexei Navalny, is joined by a fairly large batch of refrigerators - people who measure everything through their standard of living, through prices. You can’t blame people for this, of course: guys, we need to tighten our belts for the sake of the Russian world in Ukraine. But the authorities cannot underestimate the scale of the opposition state in Russia, when the refrigerator party closes with this Western fifth column.

Therefore, the authorities need to break up this social group, work with the population, if it does not want to face colossal protests that can be dressed in an anti-war form, but at the same time be of a political nature: putting Putin on trial in The Hague, the immediate disarmament of Russia, the return of Crimea. All this will have catastrophic consequences for the authorities.

The strength of Russian propaganda, military-patriotic education was that Russia was a country that never starts [a war] first. All battles, the war with Napoleon or the Teutonic Knights, the Great Patriotic War - they were built on this: we were attacked, we defend our land, we rebuff the aggressor.

The level of forecasting of the current government, not to mention the propaganda work, [is this]: they laugh at Biden that he talks about some kind of invasion, and then they go and invade. The same propagandists on TV yesterday shouted “No, what are you, don’t slander Russia!”, And now they have completely switched to “Yes, this is justified, Russia has no other choice.”

It was necessary to prepare Russian society for such a scenario, and it was even developed in secret from a significant part of the political class. It was enough to see the bewildered faces of the members of the Security Council. For them, it was also a revelation.

You communicate with colleagues in the State Duma, are they really so unanimous?

- You know, many people now adhere to such a rational approach that it is better to be silent.

Every word can be used in an information war. As my word is now, many are trying to use against the interests of Russia. I read screenshots of my opinion on Ukrainian TV channels with such comments as “Ah! Scared of sanctions! I don't care about sanctions. I don't have a penny abroad, I don't have any property, nothing. Yes, it limits the ability to move a little. Instead of one place, you can go to another. Russia is big.

The point here is not this, but the fact that many comments are precisely the properties of “Gave back, fraerok!”, “Scared!”, “You will still be in The Hague!”, “We will hang you, but without our usual Bandera torments ". There are a lot of threats of physical violence. I'm tired of cleaning up the comments. This suggests that people who are in the mood for war are not going to hear anything. This bitterness can spread to the military, when they begin to avenge their killed comrades.

I understand that this does not at all coincide with the opinion of the Western media, but Russia is really fighting not in the format of a total war, but a military operation. There are, of course, such situations when a rocket flies over a city, it is shot down by Ukrainian air defense and its fragments fall on a residential building, people die. But the goals of the Russian army are not cities and civilians. Moreover, the concept of the total destruction of the enemy's manpower was not accepted - strikes on military personnel, on their clusters.

Why is this being done? Because it seems like you have to fight, and you don’t want to get the exasperation of the people. That is, to walk along the blade. This leads to a prolongation of the war and additional casualties among Russian soldiers. It is simply very difficult to do this with the desire to save the lives of opponents, to separate the nationalist battalions, all sorts of Azovs, Aidars from the regular units of the Ukrainian army.

Are you afraid of being deprived of your mandate, of being expelled from the party?

- Everything is possible. I want to say again, to emphasize that my position is aimed at the speedy end of hostilities, primarily in the interests of Russia.

In my opinion, it is necessary to achieve peace through negotiations, and the conditions for these negotiations should be confirmation by Ukraine of its non-nuclear and non-aligned status, federalization of the country, recognition of the DPR and LPR, recognition of Crimea as part of the Russian Federation, guarantees that the Russian language will be one of the state, a ban on extremist organizations, all of these Nazi-Bandera ones, bringing to trial those involved in the tragedy in Odessa, allowing the activities of opposition parties, including the communist one, and holding new elections in the country.

After the meeting of the Security Council, did you have any idea that a war would start?

- No. I thought that we are talking about sanctions and the pale appearance of the members of the Security Council is due to the fact that many of them are very closely connected with the West with their family affairs and business and they are worried about personal sanctions. It seems to me that President Putin had such a strong position, he had so many trump cards in his hands in order to conduct effective negotiations. It was possible to play a magnificent game with these trump cards. World leaders called him almost every day. We know that a meeting with Biden was announced, and Macron fussed there. Everyone wanted to become mediators. But it was decided that we were no longer bargaining, but simply tearing this Gordian knot by force.

Now all this is indicated in Russian propaganda as a preemptive strike, which is inflicted on the military infrastructure of a hostile state in order to prevent a major war. Well, perhaps for some, the current war is still small ...

Do you want to leave the faction, do you regret that you were elected from the Communist Party?

- No. Once again I want to say. I am a Russian patriot. In my opinion, the position “for peace” is, first of all, in the interests of Russia itself and the people of Russia.

I will never have a yellow-blue flag on my profile pictures, I will not shout “Glory to Ukraine!”, despite the fact that I am 50 percent ethnic Ukrainian and was born in Dnepropetrovsk. Everything is very complicated here. I really do not consider Russians and Ukrainians to be different peoples. I consider them different branches of one Russian people. Therefore, of course, the sooner peace is established, the less this bloody wound between Ukrainians and Russians that separates us will be. I'm still for unification, not division. Perhaps my position sounds very difficult. But she is like this, because the situation is very complicated.

After the interview, MP Mikhail Matveev announced that he had deleted his post on the telegram channel calling for an end to the war. “Not because he changed his point of view, but because the text about the world is now deliberately used in hundreds of comments on it, multiplying every hour, most often anonymous, for the opposite, to incite mutual hatred,” he wrote.