Strelkov and Gordon: Six years ago this could have stopped the bloodshed
They will now start saying all sorts of things about Igor Strelkov-Girkin’s interview with Dmitry Gordon, they are already saying, often impartial, but it was, at a minimum, interesting, unusual and informative. That’s why at the end of the conversation the two sides were generous with compliments to each other. That, they say, it is always useful to talk with an intelligent person, even if he is an enemy. And at the same time, everyone solved their own problems. Which they also hastened to report.
This is not a routine remark, but rather something like an excuse. Because everyone started slandering everyone. Supporters and critics of Strelkov did not understand why he stuck his nose into such an odious character as Gordon. The latter was accused of how it was possible to invite fierce enemies of Ukraine on air. Nationalists even staged a picket near Gordon's editorial office. And the SBU promised to check Dmitry after the interview with Strelkov and Poklonskaya (the latter took place a week earlier).
Why did two similar characters even meet in hard-talk? The initiative came from Gordon (formally, that’s right). Someone has already called this an order from the Kremlin. Someone because Dmitry works for Smeshko’s rating. Both assumptions are logical, but not entirely convincing.
If Gordon worked for anyone, it was only for himself. After all, the hype turned out to be significant. As for the Kremlin games, both Poklonskaya and especially Strelkov are aloof from the capital’s trends. And, in my opinion, this is largely why Gordon chose them.
But the most interesting thing, if we put aside conspiracy theories, was this. I watched the interview live, and on the right in the chat window the commentators were practicing ostracism and humor (they call it humor). Some were for Ukraine, others were for Russia, but here’s the problem - they mirrored each other in their inadequacy and sometimes hatred. The markers changed, but they invariably worked to incite hostility between Russians and Ukrainians.
And the more interesting the conversation under discussion was.
Yes, you may not understand Gordon and Strelkov, you can condemn them, but personally it seems important to me that they talked in principle. This, I emphasize, is important regardless of the ins and outs. People who were - at least publicly - on opposite sides of the barricades communicated, expressing opposing ideas.
As for me, we have lacked dialogues of this format for the last 6 – and moreover – years. We observed one-sided stories where the interlocutors were blowing the same tune. Well, sometimes, for show, some hired artist like Kovtun was interspersed into their idyll.
A slightly different story happened immediately. And if it had happened earlier, perhaps there would have been less blood.
This seems abstract, maybe even strange, but it is necessary to start talking. Let it be now, let it be somewhere for show, let it be through a camera lens and a screen, but it’s necessary. Because too much unambiguity has flowed lately with a pretentious right to axiomatic truth.
And I’m not idealizing – not at all! – conversation between Gordon and Strelkov, he had his own – very mercantile – reasons. But if you look at it from a certain angle, then, undoubtedly, more benefits are identified than harm.
And if such communication between the two sides continues in one format or another, with the involvement of new participants, then Russian-Ukrainian relations will only benefit from this.
But will it continue? Will Gordon's initiative, for example, affect Ukrainian television content? Or will it remain in the regime of temniks and manuals, where opinions from Russia cannot be voiced in principle? It would be nice if the screws in the heads would move so that the antennas would be reconfigured. However, for now, “the best Ukrainian minds” are trying to figure out why and how to punish Gordon, because “we don’t need this free-thinking here.” Like in that movie: “Don’t go there, go here.” So they walk - most often in formation according to the order. Without much success, really.
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