A RUSSIAN man living in Limerick who is protesting against his country’s invasion of Ukraine believes most ordinary Russians don’t support the war and those who encourage sanctions could be poisoned, jailed, or lose their jobs.
Iurii Ivanov, a software engineer living in Limerick for the past five years, stands on O’Connell Street holding a poster showing a photograph of the Russian president Vladimir Putin behind the bars of a jail cell.
The poster reads: “Tribunal for the War Criminal. I am a Russian, and I demand Putin to STOP the unlawful war in Ukraine NOW!”
Ivanov (35) says he knows that supporting an end to the war may bring “consequences” for him should he try to return to his motherland, but he says he wants the world to know that he and other Russians “cannot trust or love our own country anymore”.
Despite this, when asked what political leaders can do to convince Putin to call off the invasion, given economic sanctions do not appear to have dissuaded him, Ivanov replies: “Unfortunately this answer is illegal in Russia.
“There is a specific recent law which may put you in jail for provoking sanctions against the Russian State. So, as I still have many relatives and friends in Russia, let me refrain from answering this question, but you will already know the answer.”
“I cannot publicly support sanctions against Russia. The penalties are much higher for everything in Russia, and for political stuff it is much higher, sometimes you can get poisoned. As we all know, Russia is a dangerous place.”
Ivanov says the biggest weapon in Putin’s armoury is not tanks or bombs — “it’s fear”.
“The country went through the Soviet years and we know about Stalin, my own great grandad died in Stalin’s camps. Every Russian family has suffered from our State, and if you get an order to do something, you do what they say because otherwise, they will very likely punish you, your whole family, your friends.”
Television news reports showing Russian people being detained by police in Saint Petersburg for protesting against the war is “nothing new” under the Putin regime.
“It’s how Putin and the Russian State deals with anybody who doesn’t agree with them. It has been this way for a long time.”
Criticising Putin can also result in being “put to jail for 15 days or up to a month, but they will also take care of you not ever getting any job in most of large companies, or your relatives will suffer”.
“People who work in universities, schools, anywhere, they lose their jobs, so they say nothing.”
He said he will “absolutely not” take up arms for Russia and argues that his fellow countrymen who do are being hoodwinked by aggressive Russian propaganda. He says this is emanating from Putin’s media officials who “see the world in the most insane way imaginable, and who live in an imaginary world where propaganda is there all the time.”
He emigrated from Russia to Germany and then to Ireland because he could not support Russia’s invasion and subsequent annexing of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.
“When Crimea was called part of Russia, we couldn’t stand it and we left. Right now, the invasion in Ukraine is absolutely insane, and many ordinary people in Russia recognise this very very well. Everybody there understands that this is a crime. It is murder and it cannot be justified.”
“It’s not only a disaster for Ukraine, and for peace, it is a disaster for Russia itself. People in Russia used to stand on the idea that we were proud of our country because we survived so many invasions and we weren’t aggressors ourselves. They do not see things this way anymore.”
“There is a feeling among Russians that we have probably not done enough. I was part of the opposition to Putin for a long time but unfortunately we failed. Now I’m feeling like maybe if I pushed harder, I would probably have saved so many lives. It’s just awful.”
Ivanov says he hopes to apply for Irish citizenship as returning to Russia for the foreseeable future is not an option.
“The way things are, I still have many friends and relatives in Russia, but I don’t know if I will be okay to keep my Russian citizenship after this, even if it means I might never be able to visit home again.
“Keeping my Russian citizenship kind of means that I am okay with the war and I am anything but okay with it, and there are so many more who feel the same way.”
He says he and his wife, Olga, and their Limerick born daughter are grateful to Ireland for its warm welcome five years ago.
“We really hope people here understand that Russians and Putin are different things”.
Despite the horror unfolding in Ukraine, he hopes for happier days ahead.
“We have had two revolutions and they changed nothing. I really hope the next one will change something.”
