Ukrainians in feel chill after Russia’s annexation of Crimea

April 8, 2014, 5:42 p.m. | — by Nataliya Trach

Russia is home to more than 3 million , some of w hom are now feeling ostracized because of the crisis in relations betw een Ukraine and Russia after the Kremlin annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. The threat of a Russian military invasion of Ukraine and dismemberment of the former Soviet republic remains. In the photo, a view of the Kremlin along the River in Moscow . © Ukrainian New s

The lives of two million Ukrainians in Russia have become more difficult after Russia’s seizure of Crimea and a new government in that the Kremlin does not recognize as legitimate, after the EuroMaidan Revolution toppled pro-Russian President on Feb. 22.

But some Ukrainians in Russia say that life was never easy for them. Ukrainians constitute some 3 million – or roughly 2 percent – of the Russian Federation’s 143 million people.

While everyday life and communication with friends and relatives has not changed much, some Ukrainians say they face negative attitudes toward Ukraine as a sovereign nation. The animosity is fueled by unrelenting Kremlin propaganda that is anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian and reflected in Russia’s state- controlled or state-censored news media.

Nowadays in Russia, Ukrainians have neither national schools nor any Ukrainian press.

“While we are the largest diaspora in Russia, the attitude towards us has always been the worst,” says Victor Hirzhov, an executive secretary of the Ukrainian Congress in Russia, co-chairman of the regional public organization Ukrainians of Moscow.

Hirzhov explains that, in 2010, Moscow police confiscated 50 Ukrainian fiction books from the only Ukrainian library. Officers justified the seizure by saying the books contain signs of ethnic radicalism, which is against the law.

“The new turn of Russia’s imperial syndrome exploded at the beginning of the annexation of Crimea,” he said. Hirzhov’s everyday life remained the same but he feels that in public sphere the negative attitude toward Ukrainians grew worse considerably. “Now it’s common to hear offensive words against

Ukrainians. We are called and fascists,” Hirzhov says, a reference to iconic Ukrainian nationalist (1909-1959), who is accused by the Kremlin of collaborating with during World War II. “I personally heard many times how called on to annex not only Crimea but the whole of Ukraine.”

Ihor Rozdobudko, a 43-year-old Ukrainian who lives in Moscow and who is editor of the website “Kobza. Ukrainians in Russia,” said: “The most difficult part [of living in Russia] is arrogance of Russians towards Ukrainians that has recently become even greater.”

Now, Rozdobudko says, even talking about Crimea as a Ukrainian territory can be criminally prosecuted in Russia as an act of separatism. Ukrainians who disagree with Russia’s official interpretation of the EuroMaidan Revolution and the Russian takeover of Crimea could face persecution.

Stefan Panyak, a professor of geology at Ural State Mining University who has been living in Russian city of Yekaterinburg for the last 50 years, is worried about losing his job. “The rector of the university is under pressure to get rid of me,” Panyak said. “I can be fired because of my public activity.”

During the EuroMaidan protests in Ukraine, the scholar spoke on local TV criticizing anti-Ukrainian propaganda on Russian national TV. Panyak has not decided what to do if he loses his job.

“I will have to accept it as I cannot leave Russia where my five children and 12 grandchildren live,” he said.

Valentyn Hrytsenko, the account director of Prodigy Digital Agency who has been living in Moscow for almost a year but who comes to Kyiv twice a month, said: “As the Crimean annexation began it became harder to pass through passport control on Ukrainian-Russian border. After the last political events the risk that I will not pass the border continues to rise.”

Hrytsenko says it became harder for him to do business in Moscow as his colleagues who are Ukrainian citizens are prohibited to enter Moscow business centers. In Russia, security at business centers requires people to show their passports before entering, making it easy to detect Ukrainian passport holders.

“There is an unofficial rule not to let Ukrainians in, we have to meet with our clients in cafes,” Hrytsenko added.

Ukrainians say these days ordinary Russians pay more interest to them when they find out they are from Ukraine.

“Russians keep asking me about what is happening in Ukraine all the time,” says Nino Siriyan, a young pediatrician from Dnipropetrovsk. “They are convinced that anarchy and war are in Kyiv, and become very surprised when I tell them that’s not true.”

Kyivan Ivan Antonenko came to Russia only three weeks ago to work in retail business. Things have been going well at work for Antonenko, but he says he is “fed up” with the atmosphere in Russia now comparing it to a police state.

“I have a feeling that I got into one big anti-EuroMaidan. I want to come back to Ukraine as soon possible,” he added.

Some even decided to stay home and not move to Russia because of its aggression in Crimea. IT specialist Dmytro Kotulev cancelled his plans to move to Moscow for work in April. He decided to stay home because of Russia’s breach of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

“Going to work to Moscow now means bringing benefit to those people who support Putin’s aggression against Ukraine. It means to work for aggressor and invader,” Kotulev said.

Hirzhov from the Ukrainian Congress in Russia is convinced that the difficult Ukrainian-Russian relationship affects Russian attitudes towards Ukrainians in their midst.

“If social and economic situation in Ukraine improves, and Russia recognizes Ukraine as an equal partner, then the status of Ukrainians in Russia will get better,” he believes.

Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be reached at [email protected]