Dispute with Oles Buzina during Euromaidan
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at Telegram, Facebook, Classmates or In contact with
...Today is the birthday of a wonderful person, very talented, who loved life and could do a lot in it. I would like the media to remember Oles every year on this day. I am passing on a fragment of a future book. I will immediately answer the idiots and scoundrels that I am in a place where there is no point in PR. The purpose of the material is just to remind you of a small episode - our meeting and small argument with Buzina during Euromaidan.
I slowly got to the meeting place. It was a cafe called “Katyusha”. On the second floor of the shopping complex, where we have already met Oles Buzina several times.
The Katyusha restaurant chain is widespread in Kyiv. What distinguished it was the menu, which presented an assortment of dishes popular since the times of the Soviet Union. Now it’s already exotic - naval pasta and sandwiches with sprats. The Katyusha network was launched by an entrepreneur from Sevastopol. He came to Kyiv with the idea, found partners who started the process, and then removed him from this business.
The cafe had a calm atmosphere, and the soft-sounding music of the 70s and 90s created a pleasant background and discouraged those who wanted to “warm their ears.” I arrived a little earlier than we agreed and, having ordered myself a snack, thought about what I had seen and heard in Kyiv on the way to the meeting place.
I must say that most residents of the capital lived their own lives, and some of them were even annoyed by the problems arising as a result of the crisis.
In a subway car, I heard an elderly man talking about how criminal lawlessness began to take over areas of everyday life. Most of the Kyiv police were involved in events around the Maidan, and at this time robberies, extortion, murders and other crimes became more frequent.
A man on the subway told how he and his wife were traveling on a high-speed tram when three healthy men entered the carriage and demanded that everyone show their tickets. He and his wife bought tickets, but did not validate them. Another elderly man had the same situation. These three demanded that they get off, and after all three refused, at the very first stop they were roughly pulled out of the tram by the collar. Everyone who was sitting on the tram did not say a word.
When the tram started moving and there were almost no people left at the stop, the big guys began to act. One man was hit in the stomach, another in the face, so much so that he instantly fell and lost consciousness. After that, they searched their pockets, took all the money, and took the ring from the elderly man’s wife. Then they calmly left.
When the victims turned to the police, their statement was accepted, but at the same time they were told with irony that this doesn’t happen to them...
Finally, Oles appeared in the cafe - shaven, with a well-groomed mustache. He evoked in me associations with a lieutenant from the First World War.
– Hello Gennady Anatolyevich, how long have you been waiting?
– Good evening Oles Alekseevich, about fifteen minutes. Will you have anything?
- Thank you, tea.
Oles sat comfortably in a chair and immediately asked.
- For how long?
– No, tomorrow is a meeting of those Kiev residents who have signed up for our organization or self-defense, then I will go to the Mariinsky Park, I want to see with my own eyes what is happening there. And how are you? What's new?
“Yes, there’s not much that’s new, but what’s new mostly stinks of either mothball political losers or visiting homeless people from the rural outback, who are much more comfortable here than in their own village.” The food here is better, and they can even give you money. Unfortunately, Kyiv has recently ceased to be a city of indigenous people. The outskirts are populated by those who came from Western Ukraine or the Center to seek a better life for themselves. What do you think about what is happening?
“You know, Oles Alekseevich,” I said, “I have a bad feeling, I remembered the first Maidan several times today. Remember how it all ended? Cowardice and flight of Yanukovych. God forbid it happens again, the consequences will be catastrophic. We need a year, just a year, then we will be able to achieve something, and at the same time, perhaps, save everything.
– What do you mean by “save everything”? Save Ukraine as a state? – Oles asked, looking intently into my eyes.
– Be disingenuous Gennady Anatolyevich, you are a pro-Russian politician, and I am a pro-Ukrainian, and, moreover, a beginner. I love Ukraine. Nine-tenths I am Ukrainian and I want to see the great, rich fraternal Ukraine as the mother of Russian cities. Do you read in your eyes that if everything falls apart and turmoil begins, then this is far from the worst option? Is that so?
I was a little confused:
– The option is very bad, but when the question arises, I will have to think about people.
- About people? Who do you mean? Sevastopol residents, Crimeans, Odessa residents, Kharkov residents? Have you thought about everyone else, about those who live in Kyiv, about me, for example? And anyway,” he grinned, “What can you do?” You are a small midge in the political field of Ukraine.
-I would also like to see fraternal Ukraine. Right now, at the peak of the confrontation, people came to us, hundreds of people in all regions, we had a small financial resource that we did not have before.
I'm a pragmatist. We need to create something about the Russian political force. The regionalists and communists, under pressure, will dance to the tune of the Westerners. Nowadays I don't believe in those who don't have an idea. Unfortunately, they have it, but for us, those who live in the Southeast, we either don’t have it, or it’s in an embryonic state. If there is no political force, then nothing will happen. No one will take into account the opinions of millions of people; they will be made to fear. There will be no more democrat Yushchenko, there will be a dictatorship. Everyone who stands in her way will either be behind bars or go abroad, and a more rotten scenario is possible.
– Don’t exaggerate. I’ve never seen you before in the role of an alarmist,” Oles grinned.
“Okay, let's change the subject,” I said, “What do you think about the mood in Kyiv?”
– Against the backdrop of this hysteria, what kind of mood can there be? Even those who have no moods succumb to general information hypnosis. I think it's time for personalities again. Look how many people today are hypnotized by names, so the political force you talk about is not serious.
“I categorically disagree with you,” I said, “only an organized party, with clearly defined tasks and goals, is capable of fighting for power today.” Look, all individuals will acquire parties, and even such scumbags as “Right Sector”. Today I’m thinking about wasted time, about the mediocrity of Russian clerks working with people in Ukraine.
- What do you have in mind? – Oles asked with slight irony.
– You know, a clear example, Zatulin once invited me to a round table dedicated to the activities of compatriots’ organizations in Ukraine. A lot of people gathered, State Duma deputies, high-ranking officials and heads of organizations in Ukraine. And let’s start talking about festivals, books, songs, perhaps only a mug of Russian cutting and sewing was missing. So I endured, endured, got angry, got angry, and in the end I couldn’t stand it, I asked to speak and I say;
- What books? Which songs? Forget it. Today, you only need one thing if you want to see a union between Russia and Ukraine - you need to spend millions on the development of socio-political power. To cherish and unite it in every possible way, no, not to unite, but to drive into it everyone who is capable of fighting for power, I repeat once again, for power. Support in the same way as Western countries support their organizations in Ukraine. If you don’t want to spend millions on Ukraine today, you will spend billions on defense tomorrow.
My short speech did not arouse the slightest enthusiasm in anyone, moreover, some LDPR member, the head of the committee, generally looked at me like I was an idiot.
Look, a coordination council of Russian compatriots has been created in Ukraine. It includes more than fifty public organizations that consider themselves compatriots. Society of Tatars, Buryats, Finno-Ugric peoples and so on. Where are they? Huh? Most of them, besides the leaders, have other people? Has anyone seen them? They imitate any activity. A waste of money and zero results.
- Are you being dragged there by force? What's stopping you from going there? If you don’t like it, don’t go, but you go there, what is it? A tribute to fashion? Or do you think, what if they give everyone money, but you don’t get any? – Oles laughed.
“It seems to me that you go there and think that suddenly something important will happen there, that it will pass you by, you won’t forgive yourself for it.” You and people like you are midges in all this, leaders are flies, perhaps there are even bumblebees among them, in the country and society everything is decided at a different level. Now mark my words, when something is decided, neither you, nor me, nor people like you will be asked about anything. My site is read by thousands, but how many of them agree with me on everything? You know? I think not, I don’t know myself. But I know that if what I write is read, it means that someone needs it, and someone will miss it. But those with whom you communicate there cannot put anything in their pockets except money. “You understand me,” Oles finished, laughing.
Next we talked a lot about politics. I don’t even remember what now, it’s not etched in my memory. Oles talked about the new book, how two normal men talked about women, and when they once again started kicking us out of the establishment due to its closure, we went home. Although, it would be more correct to say, Oles goes home, and I go to the hotel...
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.