Why Russians Are to Blame for Putin

The ‘Z’ cult says more about society than Marina Ovsyannikova's TV stunt

16 March 2022

Iryna Podolyak

Former Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine

Let’s not delude ourselves  — Russian society is no different from Putin today.

Read a response to this piece by Pavel Havlicek: Remember About the Russians Who Still Want to Do the Right Thing

Good Russians do not exist. 

Even if they have had a different nationality for decades somewhere in Germany, France, Israel or Australia.

Especially if they are Russians who left for the West 10-15 years ago, or even earlier.

Especially if it is Russians who are leaving now.

They do not run away from fascist Putin. They go out into the world guided by fear for their own welfare. Look for comfort, oysters and, as they call it, the ‘long ruble,’ that is, easy profits.

They behave there as they did in Russia — at first, they watch silently, then they squeeze a tear from their eyes, and then they can get on everyone’s head, hiding behind their ‘great culture’ or behind human rights, about which they were silent in Moscow, but shouted in Europe. They are all ‘dolzhny’ (indebted) …

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They talk and laugh loudly, shout at the children using curses, leave a mess around and pretend to be insane: — ‘A sho takoye’ (And what happened)? …

They did not demand massive respect for human rights in Russia, because they are satisfied with the situation in which a population of 140 million is beaten with clubs, thrown with their faces on the asphalt by several thousand OMON officers, or fed like animals for slaughter directly into excavator shovels, as in 2016 on the Red Square. It suited them.

I do not even think about the hundreds of people taking to the streets of Russia, or about the ‘heroic’ interviews of Russian emigrants. There is nothing to comment on here and no one to feel pity for.

I will pay attention to them when a million people will come out in Moscow and Saint Petersburg who will not be afraid that OMON or anyone else sent to chase them away …

All unfortunate Russians who settled abroad should be sent back to their historic homeland, stuffed with valenki (felt boots), cabbage soup, with caviar, vodka, fleas and Faberge eggs, where as a drunken choir they will sing ‘Kalinka’ under the baton of Valery Gergiev, with an aria by Anna Netrebko and on Instagram, Xenia Sobchak (known as the ‘Russian Paris Hilton’).

For a long time, the Russian elite has been placing capital in oil and gas abroad. And now they emanate this bloody wealth in Europe, Asia, America or Africa like radioactive uranium — invisible but deadly.

Invisible up to a point.

All these famous and unknown ordinary citizens of Russia are waiting for a signal from the Kremlin — from Putin or whoever will be after him — to initiate a destructive chain reaction. When, together with compatriots around the world, they explode with their Russian customs, destroy states, poison nations and submit to fascist rules.

Russian communities around the world are as dangerous as ISIS. These are not fantasies — this is a reality that we have faced in Ukraine over the years, and are still not yet obvious for the West.

The news site Meduza? TV Rain? To me, they are toxic, like any ‘human rights defender’ — a stalker with a Russian passport.

If they are worried about Russia’s fate, let them go there and change their fate, die for it, just as our people die for Ukraine. Instead, they describe in dramatic voices the severed limbs of our children, the shattered eyes of our women or the cold smiles of our army.

In every country in the West and East you must reject the money of those with Russian passports, otherwise, it is only a matter of time before we hear their slogans about ‘Russischer Lebensraum’ preached from the beaches of Dubai or Biarritz.

Good Russians do not exist. They have not been born yet.

Part of #DemocraCE project

Picture: Valery Gergiev taken from mezzo.tv

Iryna Podolyak

Former Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine

Member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (2014-2019), Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine (2019-2020), Chairwoman of the Board of the NGO Coalition for Culture (NGO Coalition for Culture).

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