“It’s a horror we can’t describe. In the family we can only think of the war, it is mental stress also for us who live in Russia”. speaking is Andrei29 Employees in the energy sector a Syktyvkarcapital of Republic of Komiin Russia central. Say the difficulty of so many Russians as in the whole country they wonder why this war. There are those who openly expose themselves, like the journalist from the first Russian channel Marina Ovsyannikova who showed an antiwar poster on the news and was subsequently arrested and interrogated or the 81yearold artist from Petersburg Elena Osipovaamong the few survivors ofNazi siege of Leningradwho has been demonstrating against the invasion of for daysUkraine. There are those who choose to go: just in Georgia Since the beginning of the conflict, 20,000 Russians have already emigrated, and the refugees have to join them Turkey, Armenia or even inside Europe, before the closure of the airspace. And who instead how Alenaalso a citizen of Syktyvkar and project manager Revolt Pimenov Cultural Centeropts for a plain jacket with the inscription “No to war‘, even if he knows what he’s risking. “I did it when the government hadn’t launched the latest repressive measures, but the police still arrested and interrogated me. After a few days they released me because they had nothing, today I would risk it end up in prison for 15 yearshe tells ilfatto.it. A risk that many prefer not to take and choose alternative routes.
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“I’d like to go, but I don’t know how” “I have a family with four children, I don’t feel like demonstrating on the square. But I’ll express my resistance to the war right away: I carry it up FacebookI talk to my friends about I’m trying to convince as many people as possible that what is happening in Ukraine is wrong”. The thirty nine Alexei (real name), Russian flight reservist now living in to fly with his family, he seems convinced of what he says, and fear of a call to arms doesn’t seem to affect him. “A contingency Army call it doesn’t bother me just why I would desert: My family needs me here, at home,” she says. For them, the choice seems inevitable. “I want to leave Russia but I don’t know how to do that as flights to Europe have been blocked. But it is there or in it Americathat I imagine our future”. The 34yearold is the one who has succeeded annwho left Russia with her husband and her fouryearold at the beginning of March a Schengen visa only valid for ninety days. Speak up in the video call telegram live off Kalellaa small town in the Catalan Autonomous Community fifty kilometers away Barcelona. “I used to work in an IT company. When we saw how things had developed, we decided to leave Moscow. Unlike my husband, who like me works in the tech sector, I decided to do it not manifest to protect my son. A gesture that we both shared but was also right for the many people we know in Ukraine who had us asked to comment. We now hope that we can also be useful from here,” he says.
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“Worse than the fall of the USSR” “The situation we have before us is definitive worse than 1990when it fell The Soviet Union. In my opinion, Russia only harms itself with this war and that’s why I quarreled with my son.” To say it is the Petersburger constantine, fifty years and a job as a lawyer with a big construction company in town. “With mortgage rates at twenty percent, many people will avoid taking out mortgages and so many businesses will be forced to close. So I’m trying to convince people that this war was avoidable, but many don’t seem to care and trust the government. my son Juri, owner of a gym, is one of them: he does not follow politics and trusts what Putin says. I believe that at the moment we cannot remain indifferent to what is happening in Ukraine, ”he says.
The impact of the sanctions But even those who disagree with the Kremlin line have something to blame the West for. “I do not like these measures that have been decidedEurope and give it United States: Ad hoc measures were required for the oligarchs and politicians. What a mistake we Russians have what do you decide ‘ asks Alexei. “Even the decisions of the world of Sports they seemed unfair to me, like being excluded from the Russia national football team from the playoffs of World Championship and that of Spartak Moscow from the quartereuropean league, as well as those of companies, even those who take care of the little ones”. A story he knows well: “I had given one to my sevenyearold son PlayStation but at Christmas, now that all games have been blocked, also his favorite Minecraft, he asks me if he can play it again once the war is over. I try to explain the situation to him, but it’s not easy.” The economic consequences of sanctions are inevitable for everyone. “You have changed the life of my family in every way. We thought of vacation abroad in March 2022 and thank goodness we didn’t buy the tickets, with the airspaces closed we wouldn’t have been able to use them. Until a few months ago I felt a salary of six hundred dollars a month and now, at the current exchange rate, I’ll take some only three hundred. Everyone’s prices Food has risen sharply, even doubled for some product groups: What will happen in a month or two? Will we still be able to live?” is Andrey’s fear. He too would like to leave Russia and doesn’t know how to do that, he says.
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The choice between abroad and prison For everyone, the war has changed daily life, perspectives and expectations for the future. “I hope I can stay in my city, that gives me so much strength, and not having to move, ”explains Alena. “I hope the situation doesn’t force me to do it choose between abroad and prison. The current situation does not bode well: I see around me that the poor have increased, many people have already lost their jobs and I too wake up every day wondering what will happen during the day. War often requires drastic decisions, like Anna’s: “My decision to go to Spain was painful, I love Russia and my family is all there including my two granddaughters who I love but we were forced to leave to prevent my husband from being stopped by the police again. Now I keep in touch with my family members in Russia via Whatsapp and I think it’s a lot hard to think of going back thereat least in the short to medium term,” he says.
“The new generations will pay” “A lot of people around me are for war, although some are only for quiet living. For many, Putin was the guarantor of wellbeing after the end of the Soviet Union,” emphasizes Alexei. “For that in Russia,” he argues, “there is a kind of military patriotism which has now become one secular religion, with Vladimir Putin as priest. Many people are connected to this system and because of this I believe that his system of power will remain even without him,” he concludes. For Constantine, “this war geopolitical catastrophe for Russia even more than the collapse of the Soviet Union according to Putin’s imagination. Therefore, I believe that the Russian economy will not withstand the weight of the sanctions that will affect the country’s present and future. I really don’t know what Putin can do to solve the problem,” says Konstantin. And they will bear the brunt of the catastrophe new generations: “This oneman war will end up hurting us all,” says Andrey. “It scares me to think about how I’ll be treated and judged around the world, but most of all I’m scared for my children who will do it bear the burden of being Russian“.