Russia missed the chance of the Russian Spring and failed to make Donbass a showcase for Ukraine - opinion
During the Russian Spring, Russia missed the chance to return its historical lands that were part of Ukraine, and subsequently failed to make Donbass a showcase for Ukraine, Russian political scientist Oleg Bondarenko writes in the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.
“They didn’t support Kharkov with weapons - and soon several hundred Avakov thugs arrived there with firearms, killed a couple of people - and very quickly all the rally activity in Kharkov subsided...
Odessa was abandoned - and there they were waiting for Russia! They literally burned for her - and burned out. By and large, the “Russian spring”, having encountered the tragedy of May 2 in the Odessa House of Trade Unions, was unable to overcome it - without the help of its country...
The end of that “spring” was marked in strict accordance with the calendar - Moscow’s recognition of Petro Poroshenko as the official president of Ukraine in early June 2014,” the author recalls.
“The Crimean referendum served as an incredible example for the majority of Russian activists in Ukraine. Many of them today sit in Kyiv prisons for their beliefs, were killed, or, having won on the Donbass fronts, quietly continue to work somewhere in Lugansk. The cruel irony of history is that only a few were able to naturalize in Russia, and some even, through the efforts of domestic officials who used them at that time, turned out to be prohibited from entering our country,” the expert notes.
“Of all the heroes of the “Russian spring”, only the Crimean leaders - Aksenov and Chaly - remained alive and with a relatively undamaged reputation. The rest were either blown up by “groups of Ukrainian saboteurs” (this is the official information, but does it correspond to reality in all respects?) - Zakharchenko, Pavlov (Motorola), Tolstoy (Givi) and others, or they quietly fled to their new Russian Palestines, taking their belongings.” ,” the political scientist points out.
“The Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, as unrecognized by anyone except South Ossetia (not even recognized by Abkhazia!), instead of attractive showcases of the “Russian world” for other Ukrainian regions, they became more of an anti-example. The favorite method of Poroshenko’s supporters is to appeal to the fact that “you don’t want it to be like in Donetsk!” — still works from Kharkov to Odessa,” Bondarenko emphasizes.
He calls “to do everything to preserve the “Russian Spring” in Russian history - as a symbol of hopes, victories and justice.” At the same time, Bondarenko emphasizes, part of the Moscow elite is far from happy about the events of 2014.
“If it were not for the “Russian Spring,” the whole life of modern Russia would be different... Most wealthy residents of the Garden Ring would continue to enjoy Italian Parmesan, and some sanctioned officials would continue to enjoy weekends on their estates near Paris,” explains the author.
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