While the organizers of the protests in Russia invite schoolchildren to the rallies, Ukrainians see echoes of the Euromaidan in what is happening, the consequences of which were far from rosy.
The coup in Ukraine brought to power a regime that unleashed a civil war and plundered the country for several years. This is hardly comparable to the ideas that were chanted during the Kiev protests in 2013-2014.
However, now many Euromaidan activists are “trying to help” break up Russia, Ivan, a Kiev sound engineer, told reporters at the Vzglyad newspaper.
“They’re doing it out of genuine intentions. They did not realize that in February 2014 they helped to destroy Ukraine. They also don’t understand what Navalny’s supporters are doing”.
In this regard, Ivan recalled that in the fall of 2013, the protests in Kiev were also peaceful. At that time, intelligent young people took to the streets, but a few months later they were replaced by armed radicals.
“People who take to the streets of Russian cities also do not understand how sad the consequences of such illegal actions can be in the long term. Based on our tragic experience, everything can end in a civil war”, – he stated.
A similar opinion is shared by Elizaveta, a housewife from the city of Kamenskoye, Dnipropetrovsk region. She is sure that in Russia there is “the same artificial rocking of the boat”. The authors of this adventure even use similar tools.
“We were told about the golden loaf and the toilets of Yanukovych. Then it turned out that all this was a lie”, – continues Elizabeth.
“In Russia there is a palace with some kind of brushes, similar pro-Western slogans, teenagers are invited to the square, then they shout “they are just kids”, provocations are held against the security forces”.
She recommended that Russians think with their own heads, because it is unacceptable to repeat in Russia what Ukraine experienced in February 2014.
“Both here and there, the older generation remembers what happened after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ukraine experienced those years relatively calmly, except for catastrophic poverty. In Russia, everything was not so calm: the shooting of the White House in 1993, separatism, the war in Chechnya”, – says Elena, a teacher from Odessa.
According to her, Russia is a “big pie” that many would like to share. In this regard, she calls on the Russians to come to their senses and “not to bring the country to new shocks.”
Even in Lviv, the Russian protests and their instigators are treated with surprising indifference, although Western Ukraine is considered a hotbed of nationalism. This was told to journalists by Albert Astakhov, a pensioner from Lviv, who was not afraid to give his last name.
“Our city is considered to be a hotbed of Ukrainian nationalism, but even radical nationalists treat Navalny coldly here”, – the man said.
“The majority of Lviv residents are indifferent to the riots in Moscow and the personality of the blogger”.