The whole world is watching Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Some show sympathy, and some are quiet and aloof. Here, two Russians in America and the UK shared different perspectives of the war.
After a few rejections to my enquiry towards Rusians’ to tell me their own opinion about the war, Daniel (not his real name), a 65-year-old Rusian-American software engineer in the US, kindly expressed his perspective of the current Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The Moscow-born carefully revealed that “Those Russians who support him [Putin] are brain-washed by Russian propaganda. They have no access to other sources of information.”
“Putin controls 99% of media. Two opposition media stations, ‘Echo of Moscow’ and ‘Rain’ are closed. Most of the internet, including YouTube, are strictly censored or inoperative,” continues Daniel, “Police spot checks people’s cell phones on the streets for fake news in Russia. There is a new law that says you could get up to 15 years in jail for fake news or disinformation.”
“When you hear one side of the story from everywhere on an everyday basis, multiple times a day, such brainwashing will certainly do something to you. I was brainwashed in my early teen years during Soviet times, so I know how effective brainwashing can be,” says Daniel.
“A friend of mine who lived in the USA for many years recently went back to Russia to take care of his parents and was trapped by the Russian police. He had dual citizenship (Russian and American); he is scared to text any message to express his true feelings about the war in Russia.”
Daniel discloses, “The majority of Russian people are patriotically-minded towards Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.” Local people in Russia and also Russians in Europe are standing firmly by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Olga, born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, is a fashion investor who lives in Marbella; she also kindly accepted my telephone interview. Olga discloses “I think Zelenskyy is subsidised by the US. He’s good at playing in the movies but not good enough as a President. By causing direct conflict with Russia, Zelenskyy is asking for a nuclear war.”
“Sanctions on the Russian oligarchs will also trigger Russia even more. Let’s see who is going to be in a worse situation,” Olga observes.
Olga’s political opinion doesn’t affect her everyday life in Spain. However, she cannot send money back to her family in Russia because the country is disconnected from the SWIFT payment system in the EU. “I use China’s Union Pay system to send money to my country.”
“Of course, I feel sorry for what is happening in Ukraine,” Olga admits. “However, the Ukrainian government doesn’t want male citizens to escape to other countries. Some Ukrainian men had to dress up like women to run out of the country, from what I’ve heard. People don’t want to join the fight, and they want to leave.”
“My family is not suffering at the moment from the fact that Ikea and McDonald’s are closed in Russia,” Olga claims. “The Western sanctions on Russia created huge opportunities for many local entrepreneurs to start their own businesses in Russia.”
The 38-year-old fashion investor seems bold to go against the Western mainstream opinions towards the War in Ukraine and expresses her support for Putin. “I will never be afraid to express my opinion of supporting Russia in the EU and the UK, which is very popular in our country. I saw people holding discrimination against us on social media. People said, ‘You should be ashamed to be Russians.’ Let’s see, time will tell.”
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