French photographer Pierre Crom has been traveling to Eastern Europe and the Balkans since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. He studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and received the Silver Camera in 2015 for his work on the downing of flight MH17. Crom saw Russian traces in that region in various ways. In cafes in the Balkans he photographed portraits of Putin above the counter, while in Belarus he found statues from the past.
A statue of Lenin, made in gold and with children in his arms, is prominently displayed in front of the Palace of Culture in Katerinovka in Transnistria, the breakaway Russian-speaking region of Moldova.
A monument to Russian diplomat Vitaly Churkin was unveiled in Sarajevo on the day the genocide in Srebrenica was commemorated. In 2015, he vetoed a UN resolution that would recognize the massacre in Srebrenica as genocide as a condition for national reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In Starosillja, Ukraine, statues of Soviet leader Lenin are on display at the Museum of Socialist Realism.
In Minsk, Belarus, the head of a Lenin statue is kept in the Stalin Museum, with a sign reading: “No entry.”
With his work, Crom shows that Russian influence in that region goes further than portraits and statues. Sometimes the influence is quite direct – for example, through the presence of the Russian motorcycle club the Night Wolves at political parades. But sometimes also more subtly due to the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church, whether or not financed with Russian money. “I want to show what is invisible to most people,” says Crom.
He arrived in Crimea the day before its annexation by Russia. He then worked for two years in Eastern Ukraine on the Russian side of the front line. “Then I started zooming out,” says Crom. He traveled to countries that did not belong to NATO and the European Union and saw “the influence of Russia that also caused unrest there.”
In Milici in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin hangs on the wall in ‘Cafe Putin’. Milici is located in the state of Republika Srpska whose former president, Milorad Dodik, had close ties to Putin and visited him regularly.
Also in Kosovo, Putin is pictured at the entrance to a cafe in Zvecan, where a Serb minority lives.
In eastern Ukraine in the city of Kostjantynivka, Putin hangs a Ukrainian flag on a wall of the train station that was bombed by Russia.
The Russian motorcycle club the Night Wolves is also called ‘Putin’s Angels’. The Russian nationalist motorcycle club has the motto ‘Wherever we are, there is Russia’ and its members see themselves as defenders of the homeland. This is sometimes accompanied by violence, such as the kidnapping of a Ukrainian border guard in 2014. The motorcycle club has since been on the American sanctions list.
Putin regularly has himself photographed on a Harley tricycle among the Night Wolves next to leader Aleksandr Zaldostanov, who was the torchbearer during the Winter Olympics in Sochi and received a Russian medal of honor for his contribution to ‘patriotic youth education’. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is also a member of the motorcycle club.
Members of the Night Wolves participate in a controversial parade in Banja Luka, the capital of the Bosnian state of Republika Srpska. The annual celebration of ‘The Day of Republika Srpska’ on January 9 has been declared unconstitutional. Serb Bosnians celebrate the founding of Republika Srpska in 1992, but that day also marked the start of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995) that claimed an estimated 100,000 lives.
In the Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, a member of the Night Wolves camps in an occupied school building. A flag of the self-declared ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ hangs on the wall.
In Montenegro’s capital Podgorica, members of the Night Wolves for the Serbian Orthodox Church celebrate the victory of pro-Russian parties in the 2020 parliamentary elections.
The Russian Orthodox Church also plays a major role outside Russia and is in close contact with its counterparts in the Balkans. Some churches are directly financed by Russia, others play an important political role. “The Serbian Orthodox Church conveys the message that together with the Russian Orthodox Church they form a big family with the same faith,” says Crom.
In various ethnic conflicts in the Balkans in recent years, the church has played a role as a place of struggle or as a messenger of provocative language. Crom: “The church is a refuge for extremists and nationalists.”
Nikolai immerses himself in a holy bath in the village of Hristovaia in Transnistria, the breakaway Russian-speaking region of Moldova. The Orthodox bath is run by Russian pro-life activists.
In the Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, women pray in a Russian Orthodox church.
The Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sava in the Serbian capital Belgrade is co-financed by Russia.
