The economy of the country, whose leaders
often say they bet on “spirituality,” shrank by 0.5 percent as of the end
of November, ending growth since 2009.
Energy exports didn’t help
world’s ninth most populated country much this year. As oil prices severely shrank, by up to
50 percent, export revenue fell, while demand for
Russian gas also went down, with Ukraine cutting the consumption by 20
percent.
More economic pressure came from the
sanctions introduced by the Western democracies in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine, whose Crimean peninsula and cities of Donetsk and
Luhansk remain occupied by Russian-backed separatists. These sanctions combined with lower energy prices caused a 50-percent
depreciation of the ruble, one of the globe’s worst performing currencies last year.
Numbers are just numbers. But people also tell a story.
Denis Smirnov
Denis Smirnov, a Moscow resident, was born in 1983 in a city of some 470,000 people close to the
Ural Mountains. Its name is Kirov, after
the Stalin-era mayor of St. Petersburg.
Locals don’t really want the city’s old
name, Vyatka, to be returned.
“They’re all communists,” says Smirnov. The 31-year-old man works as an event manager in Moscow, one of the
world’s most expensive cities, living in Lyubertsy, a suburb.
“Moscow views itself as
representing whole Russia, but it’s not even a part of Russia (in
essence),” he emphasizes. “I’m proud that I wasn’t born in Moscow,
because in the rural areas they hate those who live in Moscow.”
Having obtained a master’s degree in
philosophy from the Russian State University for the Humanities, Smirnov
calls himself a “revolutionary.”
“The revolution that I’m talking
about is a real revolution,” he says. “Which is why it has no relation
to Putin. Overthrowing useless, fake
leaders – these are not the revolutions, but just a rebellion that doesn’t lead
to anything. For instance, like in Ukraine or
Kyrgyzstan,” Smirnov goes on. “(My vision of revolution) implies a
pivotal rebirth of a man and society – a new type of relationship, new type of production,
new type of economy and culture.”
However, he couldn’t clarify what he means. Instead, he threw a link to a YouTube video by Maksim Kalashnikov, a nationalist-minded
Russian journalist, where he says the U.S. is preparing a civil war in Russia.
When asked to share his views on the
global political scene, Smirnov says: “Care about the people is much
higher in North Korea than in the U.S. This is my personal view.”
Having a controversial mix of beliefs
is not new in Russia. It’s not too clear what Alexei Navalny, a Moscow-based anti-Putin
blogger that received lots of public attention recently, believes
in also.
Alexei Navalny
The 39-year-old Navalny, whose blog is popular with Russians who don’t
trust Putin, was born not far from Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
However, this didn’t inspire him to
have favorable sentiments towards an independent Ukraine, although in a March 12 interview on the issue, Navalny
keeps what seems to be a generally friendly tone. But he still uses a word
“hohol” referring to Ukrainians, a word considered to be a slur. Moreover, he keeps mentioning the so-called
“brotherhood” among Belarus, Russia and Ukraine – a concept torn apart by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
A self-described “nationalist
democrat” who is called a liberal by the Russian media, Navalny never gave
a clear explanation what kind of relationship he wants between Russia and the
European Union. Also, he has not been paying much attention to rebuilding the
Russian energy-dependent economy in his speeches and writings. His all-healing
recipe for Russia’s weaknesses is an anti-corruption drive, but there’s nothing
more general and vague than anti-corruption rhetoric.
Ilya Tsymbalar
It’s also vague and unclear who was Ilya Tsymbalar, a popular soccer player –
Russian or Ukrainian.
Being born in Ukraine’s Odesa in 1969
and even playing for the Ukrainian national squad, he moved to Moscow in 1993
to play for Spartak, a local club. Moreover, along with several other
Ukrainians, he took Russian citizenship to play for Russia’s team at the 1994
World Cup in the U.S., that Ukraine couldn’t qualify for since it took too much
time for the global soccer authorities to recognize it as an independent state.
When Spartak, Tsymbalar’s employer,
came to play versus Kyiv’s Dynamo in a
1994/1995 European Champions League, right after the World Cup, he wore a #4
jersey and played midfield in what is a Glasgow Rangers – Celtic type of
rivalry. A 100,000-audience of a stadium in Kyiv saw this as a battle between Ukraine,
an independent country, and Russia, who doubts Ukraine’s ability to be independent. Dynamo won 3:2.
Tsymbalar died jobless of a heart attack in
2013 and was buried in Ukraine.
‘Leave Russia alone!’
Russians often say “Leave Russia
alone!” when talk turns to their internal affairs.
Even those Russians who lived in the
West for years are not totally immune from this attitude.
Still, it’s hard to ignore Russia. The International Monetary Fund revised its global economic growth outlook for 2014 by 0.4
percentage points, down to 3.3 percent, due to the war Russia brought to the Ukrainian territories of Crimea and the Donbas.
Having a $678-billion foreign debt, most of
it corporate, shows the Putin-led country faces burdens. Putin’s attempt to revive a newer version of the Soviet Union is poor economic policy, to say the least.
“You’re sure you want to be with me? I’ve nothing to
give,” Massive Attack, a British band, once sang. And it seems to fit Russia today.
Ivan Verstyuk is the Kyiv Post’s associate business editor.
