Valerii BALAIAN: The “brown threat” in Russia started acting in the legal framework
Your film called Love me, please will be shown in Berlin timed to the anniversary of Nastia Baburova and Stanislav Markelov’s murder. It seems that the trial finished and the murderers are punished. However, can we assert that this story has finished?
“From the judicial point – yes. The murderers were found and their guilt was proved. Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis are serving their sentence. I have talked to Nastia Baburova’s parents: they are satisfied with the sentence. From the formal point we can assert that the justice has won: the process was open and nobody can reproach anyone with putting pressure upon the judges. Though the Russian judiciary system has completely rotten, this time the authorities decided to keep out and give the judge the possibility to try according to the law and consciousness.
“However, if we speak about what is really happening in Russia and many post-Soviet countries unbiased people can clearly see that the ‘brown threat’ Baburova and Markelov fought against is still here. It is spreading its brown wings and is very active, in particular, in the legal framework. In Moscow a lot of Nazis’ supporters came to the meetings against parliamentary elections forgery in Sakharov Avenue. They tried to cut their way to the stage and were stopped only by the police urged by Vladimir Ryzhkov. As for me, it is a very significant symptom of the fact that they are biding their time, grouping and trying to act in the legal political space since they understand that this Cheka regime is losing ground. The forces behind Aleksei Navalny are getting stronger. I would call him a ‘mild right-winger.’ These forces are waiting for the next elections supported by a large amount of people. According to all public opinion polls, 80 percent of the Russian society support the slogan ‘Russia for the Russians.’ In the country where there are over one hundred nationalities. However, the spectrum of the right forces is quite wide: from the extreme right-wingers such as Nikita Tikhonov and Maksim Martsynkevich known as Tesak [Hetchet. – Ed.] (by the way, he was released at the end of the last year and started actively doing politics) to the ‘mild right-wingers’ such as Aleksei Navalny who participated in the ‘Russian march’ of November 4 and said that they should stop feeding Caucasus.
“Today a lot of people, especially within the liberal environment are playing the so-called ‘Russian card’ and do not understand that there is nothing good in the Nazism. Nobody knows where the nationalism finishes and the Nazism starts in Russia. There is no public discussion about it.”
The Russian authorities are warning the society: if Vladimir Putin does not win the elections the country might fall into radicals’ hands. Is this threat real?
“Yes, it is. The society will not largely support the liberals Boris Nemtsov and Mikhail Kasyanov. These people have already been in office and helped Vladimir Putin to strengthen his positions. Nobody forgot it. That is why these people are discredited in society’s eyes. Such political clowns as Zhirinovsky, Ziuganov, and Mironov do not have any chances either: it is absolutely clear that they are ‘Putin’s theater puppets.’ So, only ‘mild right-wingers’ are left. Why is Aleksei Navalny so popular? Because he is a lawyer, he is fighting against corruption but is playing ‘the Russian card’ at the same time. I saw him speaking at the meeting. It was not a politician’s but Fuehrer’s speech. He clearly demonstrated that he is a person reigning over the crowd’s moods and, at the same time guided by the crowd and its moods. He is very politically aware. That is why if we are speaking about real political future, he or the forces behind him have a great chance.
“I cannot predict anything but the popularity of the nationalism, not Nazism is obvious. A lot of intelligent people in Russia (for example, Yulia Latynina) are the adherents of the ‘healthy nationalism.’ But what about 20 percent of the people left: the Kalmyks, Buryats, Tatars and the whole Caucasus, how do they feel about the slogan ‘Russia for the Russians’? If this situation escalates, it is absolutely obvious that it will result in a collapse.”
What is the danger of this situation for Russia and its neighbors?
“The collapse of Putin’s regime will mean the collapse of the regimes in Ukraine and Belarus. I think that Yanukovych is still in office only because he realizes that he was legally elected. I also believe that Yanukovych has no chance to win the next elections if they are honest. If Putin and his team are stripped of power in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus will have a possibility to take the normal European path, not even the European, but the human one, normal way for a country situated in the center of Europe. The example of North Korea and Cuba is the political yesterday. Ukraine has to get rid of its Soviet past.”
Isn’t the accession to power of ‘mild Nazis’ in Russia fraught with danger for Russia’s neighbors?
“I am not a prophet and I cannot predict the situation. It is just obvious that the regime will not exist as it is now. The elites in Russia are splitting. The regimes collapse not when people hold rallies but when the elites split. It has not happened in Syria yet but it has happened in the Arab countries. Now this process is in progress in Russia. Some people have already quitted the governing party. The business has risen. I do not know how long will it take, a year or less but the regime will collapse. Vladimir Putin will not be able to participate in the second voting without large forgery. God knows the methods they will use but I think in March we will see more public meetings.
“As for Ukraine, I think you just have to follow the example of Poland and the Czech Republic and educate the people. Great intellectuals such as Myroslav Popovych, Ivan Dziuba, and Lina Kostenko have to focus on educating the people otherwise the process of Ukraine’s transformation into a normal country will drag on.”
What do you think is the reason why the case of Nastia Baburova and Stas Markelov did not become a certain air bag for the Russian society?
“This murder drew a very wide response. There was the January 19 Committee. People were outraged with this murder just like with the murders of Politkovskaya and Shchekochikhin, that is why I cannot say that those events were not resonant. However, on the other hand, this issue was repeatedly hushed up and the first meetings were just dispersed.
“Finally, none of the Russian festivals showed my film Love me, please. It was included into the programs of the film festivals Stalker and Profession: Journalist under the great intellectuals’ pressure” after Lev Ponomariov and Liudmila Alekseeva’s speeches. However, the date and time of the demonstration were not indicated. It is the evidence of the censorship and fear in the society that existed at least up to last December. However, this situation is resonant.
“After the first demonstration at the Kyiv festival Docudays UA, owing to my Ukrainian colleagues the film was placed on the Internet and nearly 300,000 people have seen it over the year. The film was several times screened in Germany. However, none of the Russian channels showed it. My demonstrations and trips through Russia were funded by the journalists’ organization Frontline practically at the expense of the British taxpayers. That is why all those obstacles did not make the lessons of Baburova and Markelov’s murders the heritage for the whole Russian society.”
