Serious and tired faces from early in the morning. Some tears, too. And it is that, they say, it is not easy to be Russian these days, especially if you are still stunned by Putin’s decision to invade neighboring Ukraine. Alexander32 years old, Zinaida36, and alexey, 29, the three of Russian nationality and residents of Barcelona, share a morning coffee while reflecting on the surprising events. They have just met thanks to a chat made up of 400 people, mostly Russians residing in Catalonia, whose identification title is “Russia without Putin”.
Alexander Antukh, computer scientist in a large company, he left Russia with his partner, a language teacher, in 2015, after the Russian annexation of the Crimean peninsula. “I didn’t leave because I found work abroad, I looked for work abroad to be able to leave,” she points out, adding: “Eight years ago I no longer liked the drift that the Russian government was taking, the country was increasingly closed.” “Now the disaster is complete”he points out and then admits that he is not too surprised by the Russian invasion, which he describes as a “horror” and one “atrocity against the world and against the Russians”.
To take charge of fear imposed by the regime, even living thousands of kilometers from Moscow, it is enough to hear the arguments of another compatriot, who wants to remain anonymous for fear of possible reprisals. “I have my whole family there and Putin has stolen their whole future,” she laments, adding: “Russia will go back decades”.
More aid from the West
It is difficult to know what the Russian president has in mind, everyone admits. But Alexandre is blunt in stating: “Putin dreams of a USSR 2.0”. When you hear terms like third World war or nuclear war, so in vogue these days, does not throw his hands to his head. “Things could get out of control,” he assures while he asks for more help, especially military, from the European Union and NATO because, he considers, economic sanctions are not enough. “Western aid to Ukraine is not enough,” she says.
by his side, Zinaida Pshenikovaborn in a Russian town near the border with China, is a history teacher and left Russia in 2018. She teaches Russian history to Russian children in Barcelona. “Putin has carried out his own suicide”, she says, convinced of the serious consequences that the economic, political and social isolation resulting from her management will entail. Her condition as a lesbian did not make life too easy for her in her country but, despite this, she dreams of returning one day.
He does not believe that the Russian president will take hold of the nuclear arsenal but he points out: “I didn’t think he would invade Ukraine either and look…”. “Russia has gone back several decades,” he laments, assuring that the president makes decisions without much planning. “We are in full chaos,” he maintains.
“We are sister nations”
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As well Alexey Furbatov, born in Moscow, video designer, is blunt in answering if he imagined the Russian invasion of Ukraine: “Never, we are brother peoples.” He works at a Moscow-based architecture firm and all the architects younger than 27 have gone into hiding to avoid being called up. There was a time, he reflects, in the 1990s, when Russia tried unsuccessfully to be a full democracy.
alexey uses the simile of a psychopath inside a building with all the neighbors inside to refer to Putin and his people. “It has to be stopped” – he assures – “because if not it will also be a slow death for Europe”.