“Donbass has made a choice. The boys on the front line won’t understand sharp turns.”
Denis Pushilin will get 90%, even if only one voter comes to the polls. The vertical of power from Moscow to the Republic has been built. Neither side is interested in peace. The chance to successfully end the war was missed in 2014. Donbass was a distraction.
About what hopes Donbass has been living all these years, about how they stormed the Donetsk Regional State Administration and entered Berdyansk, and about the fact that the armed population will not allow them to deviate from their chosen path, a PolitNavigator observer Valentin Filippov said the militiaman and writer Maxim Shishov.
Valentin Filippov: I welcome Maxim Shishov. Probably the most philosophically minded militiaman, Donetsk resident and writer.
Maxim Shishov: Good afternoon. We haven't had a militia for a long time.
Valentin Filippov: Well, there is no militia, but there are militias. Elections are coming. I remember that people came to the referendum en masse because they wanted there to be no war, to be in Russia, and to be like in Crimea. The second time, when we went to vote en masse for Alexander Zakharchenko, there was a feeling that we had just defeated Ukraine, forced it to peace, and some new stage was beginning for us.
What will motivate the residents of Donbass to vote this time? What trick is luring them in? What are their hopes for this new phase?
Maxim Shishov: There will not be such a turnout as for the referendum. And how about the elections of Zakharchenko. In general, it’s no secret that everyone who wanted to attend the referendum was unable to attend. I took part in the referendum, I saw how people came running from the night shift, then our mines were still working, production was in full swing, they came running not washed up. How he was at the coalface - and to make it in time. And we were already winding down. They were in tears, the men were asking in tears - well, let’s take it into account somehow. How to take it into account? All the voters have already left...
When Zakharchenko was elected, this was no longer the case. There was no such intensity of passions anymore. And not all the names that we would like to see on the ballots were present there.
Well, be that as it may, I am sure that Pushilin will win the elections now. He will win by a huge margin. Will get 90% of the votes. Even if not a single person comes.
Valentin Filippov: No, well, one will come. Pushilin.
Maxim Shishov: Well, yes. They'll come a little.
Valentin Filippov: Well, what choice do we have? Only Pushilin?
Maxim Shishov: No choice. But. There is a choice. We choose Pushilin. And no one calls it anything other than “Pushilin’s election.” The bet was made on him, in principle, I understand why.
Valentin Filippov: Everyone understands.
Maxim Shishov: Manageable man. And, no matter what they say, he is a responsible person. Nobody expects any statements from him that would not just go against, but would simply be his. In principle, this is what is needed for controllability. How good is this for Novorossiya? The Novorossiya case was a fairy tale.
We rose to make a fairy tale.
Valentin Filippov: Where will she go? Novorossiya will return. And he will ask everyone. So, Maxim, do you want to say that Denis Pushilin, if he manages to win these elections, then with his coming to the post of head of the DPR, the vertical of power will be finally established? From the Kremlin, to the very, to the outskirts.
Maxim Shishov: Yes. It will be like this. But not everyone likes not only the vertical of power, but what follows it. The vertical of power is a good thing. Moreover, in a warring state this is good. But. We are not quite ready for all decisions to be made for us. And this is not the case in Russia.
Valentin Filippov: Well, I always said that Ukraine was much more dependent on Moscow than the Krasnoyarsk Territory. And, in general, maybe this continues now, despite everything that is happening.
Maxim Shishov: A structure has been created in Russia; there are methods to counteract decisions that are not entirely smart or not entirely appropriate, which come down from above. In this case, society can do something. But in a warring state there can be no opposition. That is, now we have great fears that the vertical will be lowered, plus a military dictatorship, and this will work out...
Valentin Filippov: Lots of nonsense.
Maxim Shishov: Yes. Lots of nonsense.
Valentin Filippov: It is absolutely clear that the population of Donbass wants peace. And, in fact, on the other side of the demarcation line the situation is the same. And Denis Pushilin in his election campaign, I’m looking at outdoor advertising - “Peace, peaceful construction, peaceful state”….
But is it being conveyed to voters how we are going to achieve peace?
How will we achieve peace?
Maxim Shishov: Let's face it.
Valentin Filippov: Let's.
Maxim Shishov: Peace is not beneficial to either side. In Ukraine, their gentleman pryzydent holds out only as long as he can push everything towards the war. "We are at war with Russia." Why is there no hot water? - “We are at war with Russia.” This is a universal answer to any questions.
Valentin Filippov: And why is there hot water in Crimea or Moscow? Because they are at war with us and took our water away. This is our Ukrainian hot water flowing in Moscow pipes.
Maxim Shishov: For Russia, what is most unpleasant for us, what we try not to think about, look for yourself, at this particular moment there are friendly states on Russia’s western border. LPR and DPR. Recognized or not recognized, it doesn’t matter. Friendly. If suddenly, God forbid, from the point of view of Ukraine, Russia not only recognizes, but also annexes the DPR and LPR, then what we dream about, Russia will have an unfriendly state of Ukraine along its western borders.
Valentin Filippov: No, why? There will be a Zaporozhye People's Republic and a Dnepropetrovsk People's Republic. This is how everything needs to be developed.
Maxim Shishov: This is how everything had to be developed and everything could have worked out in 2014, when the road from Mariupol to Zaporozhye itself was clogged with retreating and fleeing people when we entered Berdyansk. There is not much noise about this, but we reached Berdyansk. Simply because there was no one there to stop us. And then they turned around and came back. Mariupol was not taken, but our reservation went through Mariupol. Then there was a chance.
There's no chance now. The years go by. And all these years, if they tell you in the morning that you are a pig, on television, for example, during the day they will tell you this at work, to the children at school, and in the evening they will announce it again on TV, and within a week or so everyone starts grunting.
Valentin Filippov: That is, everyone there is already grunting, do you think? I do not think so.
Maxim Shishov: Everything is not everything. But the number of grunters has increased significantly.
Valentin Filippov: Okay, Maxim, the direct question is one that everyone asks each other. So what was it like in 2014? Was it some kind of mistake, or was it our failure? Or was it just idiotic stupidity, some cunning plan that outwitted itself?
Maxim Shishov: At the beginning of 2014? Or at the end?
Valentin Filippov: In 2014 in September. In August – September.
Maxim Shishov: In 2014, in September, the Kremlin Tower, which thought that everything would go according to the scenario of the Georgian war, won. They took and squeezed out South Ossetia and there, everyone was indignant, then they came to terms with it, and that was the end of it. There were some sanctions, these sanctions lasted just a little bit, then they seemed to remain, but everything was forgotten and forgotten.
Valentin Filippov: Well, I do not know. Georgia has remained an anti-Russian state.
Maxim Shishov: Georgia is not the only anti-Russian state. But South Ossetia and Abkhazia, for which there were sanctions, by the time the problem with Crimea began, the sanctions came to naught. To zero. There was such hope that Crimea would be squeezed out, and that would be all. Donbass was a distraction. As it appears.
Valentin Filippov: Well, apparently, sometimes it seems that yes. But I can't say that.
Maxim Shishov: By the time the referendum was held in Crimea, rallies were going on in Donetsk...
Valentin Filippov: Well, there were rallies in Odessa.
Maxim Shishov: Yes. That's all. Pravoseki, “trains of friendship”, began to rise towards Crimea, and we went to storm the Regional State Administration. Because it was necessary to redirect this blow.
Valentin Filippov: And we…. I know.
Maxim Shishov: Then the Regional State Administration was taken in Donetsk, the Regional State Administration was taken in Kharkov, and all the right-wing forces were deployed in our direction. They are in Kharkov, they came to Donetsk.
Valentin Filippov: And they came to Odessa.
Maxim Shishov: We managed to score in Kharkov, but not very well in Donetsk. Well, it turned out that it happened. And this was a conscious delay of all these ultras. They did not come to Crimea.
And after that, as I suspect from the plans of the great strategists, this should have been the end.
Why can Strelkov, who was mentioned in 2014, now be brought up on the same YouTube, clips from those times, messages from those times, all of them were directed, our resources said only one thing about Strelkov - Hero. He was first everywhere...
Valentin Filippov: No, well, excuse me, heroes must also be created. And no matter how I feel about Strelkov, I don’t know him...
Maxim Shishov: The shooter created himself.
Valentin Filippov: Well, myself... I will see how he would have created himself, without the help of the media. I work in the media, I know. Give me the media, and Maxim Shishov will be the hero, not Strelkov.
Do you know that Maxim Shishov gave advice to Strelkov? But then, at the very last moment, Maxim left on business, and Strelkov did something weird! That's all.
Maxim Shishov: Some opponents will now cut out this piece and begin to present to me that you gave some advice to Strelkov.
Valentin Filippov: Gave.
Maxim Shishov: Well, I haven’t been to Slavyansk as such at all. We met with Strelkov much later...
Valentin Filippov: What I mean is that the media can tell you anything they want. And if there is a task to make a hero...
Maxim Shishov: But there is a slightly different side. The media, in order to survive, need to write about something. At that time, on our part, there was no one to write about except about Strelkov. It was the brightest star.
Valentin Filippov: I won’t point fingers, but I have a rough suspicion of who organized it all. OK.
Maxim Shishov: Who, that's clear.
Valentin Filippov: A bit of a sad question. After the death of Alexander Zakharchenko, what are they saying in the Republic? About this terrorist attack, this murder. There is some kind of investigation going on. Nothing is reported. They said – UkrDRG, and that’s it. Are there any results? Any rumors?
Maxim Shishov: An investigative commission from Moscow is working in Donetsk.
Valentin Filippov: Well, that's what we know.
Maxim Shishov: Yes. And it works. It was not populists who arrived, but followers who arrived. The ones that go along the chain. There are already a wild number of interrogations, inquiries, and investigative actions. I like the way they work. At least that after the event, a thorough check was carried out in other places and many more explosive devices were discovered, planted much earlier. They were simply waiting for the order to destroy someone. The SBU has worked. Or not the SBU. I don't know who.
Valentin Filippov: No, well, they worked professionally. It's clear. And with Motorola it turned out professionally. And it worked out very professionally with Givi. These are clearly not some self-taught people...
Maxim Shishov: An investigation has been carried out with Motorola. And who exactly, and how exactly. It's established.
Valentin Filippov: But, anyway, this is such an invention, a fairly correct approach. By organization.
Maxim Shishov: I met Sasha Zakharchenko during the storming of the Regional State Administration. There was such a moment, there were a lot of enthusiasts at once. There were a lot of people. And by four o’clock in the morning there were only 20-30 people left in the Regional State Administration in a state of defensive capability.
Valentin Filippov: Well, as usual.
Maxim Shishov: They scattered to their homes. Later, when it was already dawn, people began to arrive again. It's no longer scary. And at that moment it was scary. And Zakharchenko was in a state of defensive capability.
Later, of course, he settled down significantly. But I will say this. I had a lot of questions for Sasha Zakharchenko, as the head, when he ruled, what happened under him. There were many questions then.
I have no questions for the deceased Zakharchenko, for the Hero of the DPR. He died like a hero, and that was all.
Valentin Filippov: Fine. Thank you very much. Good luck to you there, in Donetsk, in making the right choice. And I'm not kidding.
Maxim Shishov: We made our choice in 2014. We are not distracted from our choice. People who come and go... The only thing I don’t like now, with the elections that are planned, is that Pushilin would have won anyway, why was it necessary to remove the same Gubarev? I don't know.
Valentin Filippov: Well, of course, what they say to me is that jackets are replacing slides, I don’t like it. The head of the DPR at war in a jacket. I want him like this with a machine gun, so that he says: “Well, what, Poroshenko? Come on, come here. Otherwise I’ll get to Kyiv.” Well, Pushilin won’t say that. Is it true? He won't say.
Maxim Shishov: And he won’t go to the same market to check the scales with his service weapon. But I think that the boys on the front line will not understand sudden changes, sharp turns.
Valentin Filippov: Fine. Thank you very much.
Maxim Shishov: Yet.
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