The attitude of Russians towards Belarusians. Do Belarusians no longer like Russians? Double strike: more by a centimeter and one unit of IQ
“Russians often repeat that no one loves them and they seek love, mistaking its absence for lack of love.”
The topic was raised by Moscow bloggers, who took away a photo report from Minsk that excited Belarusian social media users. At what point did the closest neighbors become so tired of Russian tourism that Muscovites became a sore point. Belarusians known to Minsk help to understand why Russian tourists come to them, what offends the natives in their behavior, and how to deal with it.
Andrey Kabanov, entrepreneur:
As a rule, I pay attention to the poorly concealed show-offs of Russian tourists. It doesn't offend me, it makes me laugh. Belarus is a kind of tourist meme for Russians: come on holidays without visas, good roads and cheap car service. They often improve the health of their horses; there were cases among my Moscow friends of foreign cars with seasonal diseases. But I don’t have native Muscovites among my close ones; all my friends, as a rule, live in rented apartments, and they come here to quickly waste some of the money for limited time, because walking around in glamorized prices on such a grand scale in Moscow is a bit painful.
Evgeny Kurlenko, programmer:
Belarusians behave paradoxically in relation to Russians - almost no one will say declaratively that Russians are somehow better, but at the same time, Belarusians do not strive so much to look “good” in front of anyone else. Almost every tourist, naturally, compares Minsk with Moscow: it’s “clean”, “no advertising”, “no people on the streets” and other completely accurate remarks, but every visitor reports this as the discovery of America, which we, The locals were a little fed up. In general, Russians have somewhere to go, and Belarus is far from the first place in their priorities.
But there is a category of Russians, and not so small, who organically simply cannot go to places where they are not simply understood at the language level. As a result, their geography does not extend beyond the xUSSR and Turkey and Egypt. What distinguishes a Muscovite tourist (namely a tourist, not a person who travels from Minsk to Moscow regularly) is a subjective perception of the cheapness of Minsk in everything. Moscow tourists believe that everything here costs pennies and they begin to waste money even where it is neither modest nor profitable for them. Everything else depends, of course, on cultural level guest. If it is low, we notice arrogance, low empathy, and overegocentrism. And there is also a separate type of tourists who come to see the country of the victorious Lukashenko. I don’t think that this is even a statistically significant percentage, but these are the ones who make a difference in the media field, so they cannot be ignored. This type of tourist is the most unpleasant for us - a person deliberately comes to step on our sore callus and, moreover, writes about it afterwards.
Vladimir Matskevich, philosopher and political scientist:
Personally, I am indifferent to Russians. I have no love for them, and no dislike. But sometimes you have to speak harshly against Russians. I'll try to explain what caused this. You see, love is the greatest miracle in this world, and like the best thing in the world, it is rare. This is a gift to be rejoiced and grateful for. But love cannot be demanded! The most stupid and ugly thing is to extort gifts, demand gifts. Russians often repeat that no one loves them, and in the absence of a gift they seek love, mistaking its absence for dislike, although this is a common attitude. Well, there are Russians in this world. There are Papuans, Pygmies, Luxembourgers, Vepsians and Russians. And that's enough for them. But no! An ordinary Russian will come to some country. And they answer him there not in Russian!
“Oh, they don’t like Russians here?” Yes, here we simply don’t care about the Russians, everyone is equal. And in Belarus they do NOT like Russians. We just want to see a person in everyone, and if it is important for a person that he is Armenian, Pole, Jew, Turk, Gascon or Catalan, we will understand. That's enough. For some reason, some Russians behave unworthy of love, and, having not received it, they think of themselves not as a person, they mean an entire nation - Russians. Be human and maybe someone will love you.
Olga Rodionova, blogger:
We treat Russians like Romanian border guards treat Ostap Bender. Remember in the film “The Golden Calf”, when the hero of Jurassic illegally walked across the ice across the border, hung with gold, and tried to bribe the customs officers? And they said in unison: “Bran-zu-let-ka!” And they begin to “pluck” him. The final shot we see Yursky shielding the camera with his hand: “I didn’t make a millionaire, I’ll have to retrain as a building manager!” I probably don’t really like Russians, despite the fact that they are the main readers of my blog, and I even somehow managed to get into a matrimonial relationship with a citizen of the Russian Federation. I constantly see in Minsk those who come from Moscow for the weekend to party like “the gentleman from Paryzhu”, relying on myths and legends “about Belarus”. They still believe that a 5,000 ruble bill will immediately make them a scene from the film “Eurotrip”, and then they swear loudly, looking at the bill. And immediately everything up to 50 Belarusian rubles is understood, despite the usual “I can’t figure out these candy wrappers of yours.” But we know, not in any Russian city there is no landmark as common for us as the town hall: “when we already had Magdeburg Law, a Muscovite washed his face with a brick!” So, personally, I consider myself fully justified in trolling the guests of the capital of the 2014 World Hockey Championship, for example, by offering to take something from the drawer, because “desk drawer” is a long word to say!
Nikolai Khodasevich, TV presenter:
They are often given away by the accent, gait and slightly arrogant look of a Russian - all this is a continuation of the usual imperial presentation of our eastern neighbors about ourselves. Russians still consider their country great, successfully continuing to enjoy all the wealth given by nature. The conviction of certain types that they can buy everything and everyone is the most perplexing thing. Just two years ago there was some kind of boom. My friends from Russia called with a request to book housing, create a cultural program for them, and so on. Some guy went there, which in Belarus is very low prices literally everything. Well, one visit was enough to dispel the myth. In general, it’s probably great to come to us for many reasons: it’s not far, there’s no language barrier - such a small island of silence in the center of Europe. True, the Russians themselves have a huge choice of this silence - any city outside of St. Petersburg and Moscow. But I don’t like the fact that in restaurants and cafes in Minsk, guests (not only Russians) are served at an order of magnitude higher level than their own. This is our mentality.
Philip Chmyr, musician:
Snobbery always hurts when it comes from someone you consider a friend. Then he starts to get annoying, and then you start punishing him for it. It seems to me that we are already at the stage of irritation. I would not generalize all Russian tourists, but people of low culture have common features. The problem is that in lately There are many tourists from Russia with these features. They do not follow traffic rules, ignore parking rules, talk loudly in public places and allow themselves loud evaluative statements. There is always something to answer. Any answer begins like this: “Great nation...” And then the options: 1) Build the Moscow-St. Petersburg road. 2) Make your own mobile phone, car, and so on... Belarusian hospitality is a myth. Belarusians are not tolerant, they are even more intolerant of the appearance of other species, they are vindictive: an example is the partisan movement. Therefore, the answer to rudeness can be special service in our cafes (slowly), damage to their cars in the parking lots, subsequent repairs at three roads at our service stations and careless investigations by the cops themselves. I think the cops themselves will soon start fining them for such skating. As they say, “the earth burned under the feet of the occupiers.”
Vasily Andreev, designer:
I wanted to write something bad. I knew that for sure. I remember the first point of advice to a Russian tourist began with the following: “In front of the exchanger, you shouldn’t take out 20 thousand rubles and ask with a grin: “And... how much money is that anyway?” Because (bitches) one dollar is your 30 rubles!” But the trip to Barcelona changed me. In the morning, under the balcony I see a mocking inscription: “Now look at this beautiful balcony, a resident of Barcelona is standing on it.” And the events in Kyiv changed me. And the way we drove from Sweden into Denmark changed me. “Welcome to Arab Scandinavia,” said Stefan, meaning that the Danes, according to the Swedes, do not follow laws or traffic rules and generally drink a lot and everywhere. We have not yet had what Scandinavia lives with: a bunch of immigrants who ask in line at the exchange office: “Why do they have coins with holes?” But this is Scandinavia, cold, white and windy. Now remember the number of tourists in southern Europe. I have strong doubts about the tolerance we impose on ourselves. We just don’t know if we are tolerant, because we haven’t allowed anyone in yet. And we already have a lot of questions. Because we get annoyed in line when we hear the question: “Ha ha, what can you do with these five thousand?” And Russians, who come in ridiculous numbers of tourists to Minsk, are our test of the tolerance bar. I’m afraid we haven’t passed it yet.”
I still haven’t learned to name my country correctly, but his post about us is worth a look. It’s always useful to know how others see us: Do Belarusians no longer like Russians?
Over the past two years, I have increasingly heard that the ideas of nationalism and opposition to the “Russian world” are actively gaining popularity in Belarus. But somehow I didn’t attach much importance to it. But then one video caught my eye...
The gist of the video: young man wearing a T-shirt “The most polite of people” is being pressed in Minsk, forcing him to take off his T-shirt.
I became interested in the topic in more detail. As it turned out, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since those times when Belarus almost completely supported everything connected with Russia. At the official level and among the ordinary population, everything seems to be the same - the attitude towards Russia is, if not positive, then at least loyal. But there were significantly more nationalists, and their ideas became more radical. Of course here big role Ukraine and unforgettable events played a role. Now on different Internet platforms simultaneously with the slogan " Glory to Ukraine"you can see the slogan" Long live Belarus"These people are united not only by the desire for national self-identification and special way development of their own countries, but also dislike for Russia and Putin personally.
Nationalist groups strengthened and increased in scale. For example, there is a volunteer detachment “Pahonia”, which became famous for organizing fundraising in favor of local nationalists who went to fight in the Donbass. Messages like this circulated on social media: “ We invite Belarusian patriots to join the defense Ukrainian land. Without a free Ukraine there will be no free Belarus! I ask all caring Belarusians and Ukrainians to help the guys purchase equipment!».
It is not known for certain whether any of the Belarusians fought in Ukraine or not. Officially, this is, of course, denied. One way or another, the community of the Pogonya squad is quite active. Now there are more than 7,000 people there. Eat large number other communities where the audience is smaller. But they all, one way or another, pursue the same goal. Anti-Russian rhetoric is present to a significant extent. Friendship with Ukrainians is especially emphasized.
An obligatory point is rejection of everything Soviet.
Analysts believe that it was the events in Ukraine that stirred up the nationalist movement in Belarus. Today, customized Ukrainian nationalists, practically out of nowhere, various kinds of “detachments”, societies and other groups began to appear, declaring general ideas. There are several of these ideas. Let's briefly outline.
1 . You can only write “Belarus”. "Belorussia" is a derogatory (from a nationalist point of view) name used in Russia. Calls are often heard to “return” to the “country” historical name"Lithuania. It is believed that the Belarusian people are the legal successor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
2 . The real flag of the state is the Bel-Chyrvona-Bely Stsyag (white-red-white flag). This is one of the historical national symbols Belarusians. He could often be seen at concerts of the deceased group "Lyapis Trubetskoy". And now he is very popular at the performances of the group "Brutto". Fans of the work of Sergei Mikhalok (whom some also accuse of excessive nationalism and “anti-Russianism”) know this.
3 . The only state language is Belarusian (at the same time, its Polonized version is often offered - “Tarashkevitsa”).
4 . A number of territories in Russia, Lithuania and Poland are considered Belarusian and were wrongfully taken away in the 20th century.
5 . Total de-Sovietization is necessary: streets and squares should be named after Belarusian heroes, not Soviet figures. In other words, follow in the footsteps of Ukraine and the Baltic states.
6 . Everyone who denies existence Belarusian people, nation, language, culture, history and independence are enemies.
7 . The “Russian World” is destructive for Belarus, and Putin is an enemy and aggressor.
If we analyze the communities of Belarusian nationalists in social networks, then a number of trends can be noticed. In particular, an attempt to completely eradicate the Russian language. In some public pages they ban you for comments in Russian. However, the fight against the Russian language among Belarusians is complicated by the fact that Belarusian language they also know here fewer people than language in Ukraine. And the interest in their own language among Belarusians is much lower than in Ukraine.
The image of the enemy is created according to the scenario “Regime - Lukashenko - Putin”. Everything is done to combine these components under one sauce. This is being done so that even those Belarusians who were opponents political regime in their own country, but in principle they treated Russia normally, and from now on they did not like anything Russian.
On the other hand, the image of Belarus of the future is created in associations with Ukraine. Like, Belarus is also part of Europe. We must follow in the footsteps of the Ukrainians.
In general, something like this. Of course, the overwhelming majority of Belarusians have a good or normal attitude towards Russia. And at the level of official rhetoric, everything is also buzzing. But among young people the mood is changing a little. The new generation has virtually no ties with Russia - post-Soviet times they actually didn't catch it. Coupled with information messages about the “special” path of Belarus, the consciousness of such young people may change towards dislike, or even aggression towards everything Russian. But I hope that our peoples will remain brotherly. AND Ukrainian people I mean that too, of course.
According to a survey by Rating Group Ukraine, 55% of Ukrainians are friendly towards Belarusians (43% have a good attitude, and 12% have a very good attitude). Only 2% have a “cold” attitude towards us.
The attitude of Russians towards Belarusians has worsened slightly - these are the results of a study by the Russian analytical agency Levada Center. 83% of Russians have a good attitude towards Belarusians (from 87%). Poor - 8% (last year 7%).
Our southern neighbors also love us. According to a survey by Rating Group Ukraine, 55% of Ukrainians are friendly towards Belarusians (43% have a good attitude, and 12% have a very good attitude). Only 2% have a “cold” attitude towards us, reports euroradio.fm.
A sociological survey conducted among Lithuanian residents in 2014 by Spinter Tyrimai had a slightly different format. Respondents had to answer which one neighboring countries They consider Lithuania hostile and friendly. 6.5% of Lithuanians call Belarus friendly, 19.1% - hostile.
The attitude of Lithuanians towards us has improved. In 2006, only 5% of Lithuanians considered Belarus a friendly country, but every second one considered it hostile.
At the same time, the Lithuanians changed their attitude towards the Poles. Rzeczpospolita is considered hostile by 26.8% of Lithuanians, which is 19% more than in 2006.
Political scientist from the Vilna Institute of International Relations and political sciences Vitas Yurkonis says that one should distinguish between the attitude towards the country and its people. The population has become more loyal to Belarus for many reasons.
“Economic cooperation and Belarusian investments in the port of Klaipeda also have an impact. Well, it’s no secret that many Belarusians visit us on various reasons ", — a political scientist expresses his opinion.
But attitudes towards the state can constantly change. For example, it depends on how events around the Ostrovets NPP will develop.
The attitude towards Poland worsened because it fell “off the radar” of Lithuania, explains Vitas Jurkonis. In foreign policy, Warsaw has recently been more focused on big countries, such as Germany and France. But new president promises a greater focus on regional cooperation, maybe after this big picture will begin to change.
By the way, 28% of Poles have warm feelings towards Belarusians. Only they dislike us a little more - 29%, as evidenced by data from the Polish CBOS Foundation.
Political scientist Denis Melyantsov also emphasizes that it is necessary to distinguish between attitudes towards the people and the country. It matters how the question is asked. If Lithuanians were asked about their attitude towards Belarusians, and not towards the country, the answers would be completely different. The media can also influence public opinion.
“In the media of Poland, Lithuania, and the European Union, Belarus is presented as a country with negative connotations: a dictatorship, a violation of human rights, and in the military-political sense, Belarus is an ally of Russia,”- says the political scientist.
For example, in the Polish media, Belarusian-Russian exercises cause outbreaks of hysteria, just as in Lithuania. The same “mirror” attitude is created in our media towards NATO countries.
But if there is a lot of personal communication between the populations of countries, media influence is not of primary importance.
The topic was raised by Moscow bloggers, who took away a photo report from Minsk that has been haunting Belarusian social media users since the beginning of the week. The editors of KYKY are trying to understand at what point we are so tired of Russian tourism that Muscovites have become a sore point. Belarusians known to Minsk help us figure out why Russian tourists come to us, what offends us in their behavior, and how to deal with it.
Andrey Kabanov
Andrey Kabanov, entrepreneur
As a rule, I pay attention to the poorly concealed show-offs of Russian tourists. It doesn't offend me, it makes me laugh. Belarus is a kind of tourist meme for Russians: come on holidays without visas, good roads and cheap car service. They often improve the health of their horses; there were cases among my Moscow friends of foreign cars with seasonal diseases. But I don’t have any native Muscovites among my close ones; all my friends, as a rule, live in rented apartments, and they come here to quickly waste a certain part of the dough in a limited time, because walking around in glamorized prices on such a scale in Moscow is a bit painful.
Evgeny Kurlenko, programmer
Belarusians behave paradoxically towards Russians - almost no one will say declaratively that Russians are somehow better, but at the same time, Belarusians do not strive so much to look “good” in front of anyone else. Almost every tourist, naturally, compares Minsk with Moscow: it’s “clean”, “no advertising”, “no people on the streets” and other completely accurate remarks, but every visitor reports this as the discovery of America, which we, The locals were a little fed up. In general, Russians have somewhere to go, and Belarus is far from the first place in their priorities. But there is a category of Russians, and not so small, who organically simply cannot go to places where they are not simply understood at the language level. As a result, their geography does not extend beyond the xUSSR and Turkey and Egypt. What distinguishes a Muscovite tourist (namely a tourist, not a person who travels from Minsk to Moscow regularly) is a subjective perception of the cheapness of Minsk in everything. Moscow tourists believe that everything here costs pennies and they begin to waste money even where it is neither modest nor profitable for them. Otherwise, everything depends, of course, on the cultural level of the guest. If it is low, we notice arrogance, low empathy, and overegocentrism. And there is also a separate type of tourists who come to see the country of the victorious Lukashenko. I don’t think that this is even a statistically significant percentage, but these are the ones who make a difference in the media field, so they cannot be ignored. This type of tourist is the most unpleasant for us - a person deliberately comes to step on our sore callus and, moreover, writes about it afterwards.
Vladimir Matskevich
Vladimir Matskevich, philosopher and political scientist
Personally, I am indifferent to Russians. I have no love for them, and no dislike. But sometimes you have to speak harshly against Russians. I'll try to explain what caused this. You see, love is the greatest miracle in this world, and like the best thing in the world, it is rare. This is a gift to be rejoiced and grateful for. But love cannot be demanded! The most stupid and ugly thing is to extort gifts, demand gifts. Russians often repeat that no one loves them, and in the absence of a gift they seek love, mistaking its absence for dislike, although this is a common attitude. Well, there are Russians in this world. There are Papuans, Pygmies, Luxembourgers, Vepsians and Russians. And that's enough for them. But no! An ordinary Russian will come to some country. And they answer him there not in Russian! “Oh, they don’t like Russians here?” Yes, here we simply don’t care about the Russians, everyone is equal. And in Belarus they do NOT like Russians. We just want to see a person in everyone, and if it is important for a person that he is Armenian, Pole, Jew, Turk, Gascon or Catalan, we will understand. That's enough. For some reason, some Russians behave unworthy of love, and, having not received it, they think of themselves not as a person, they mean an entire nation - Russians. Be human and maybe someone will love you.
Olga Rodionova
Olga Rodionova, blogger
We treat Russians like Romanian border guards treat Ostap Bender. Remember in the film “The Golden Calf”, when the hero of Jurassic illegally walked across the ice across the border, hung with gold, and tried to bribe the customs officers? And they said in unison: “Bran-zu-let-ka!” And they begin to “pluck” him. In the final shot we see Yursky shielding the camera with his hand: “I didn’t make a millionaire, I’ll have to retrain as a building manager!” I probably don’t really like Russians, despite the fact that they are the main readers of my blog, and I even somehow managed to get into a matrimonial relationship with a citizen of the Russian Federation. I constantly see in Minsk those who come from Moscow for the weekend to party like “the gentleman from Paryzhu”, relying on myths and legends “about Belarus”. They still believe that a 5,000 ruble bill will immediately make them a scene from the film “Eurotrip”, and then they swear loudly, looking at the bill. And immediately everything up to 50 Belarusian rubles is understood, despite the usual “I can’t figure out these candy wrappers of yours.” But we know that in no Russian city there is such an ordinary landmark for us as the town hall: “when we already had Magdeburg Law, a Muscovite washed his face with a brick!” So, personally, I consider myself fully justified in trolling the guests of the capital of the 2014 World Hockey Championship, for example, by offering to take something from the drawer, because “desk drawer” is a long word to say!
Nikolai Khodasevich
Nikolai Khodasevich, TV presenter
They are often betrayed by the accent, gait and slightly arrogant look of a Russian - all this is a continuation of the usual imperial image of our eastern neighbors about themselves. Russians still consider their country great, successfully continuing to enjoy all the wealth given by nature. The conviction of certain types that they can buy everything and everyone is the most perplexing thing. Just two years ago there was some kind of boom. My friends from Russia called with a request to book housing, create a cultural program for them, and so on. Some guy started saying that in Belarus there are very low prices for literally everything. Well, one visit was enough to dispel the myth. In general, it’s probably great to come to us for many reasons: it’s not far, there’s no language barrier - such a small island of silence in the center of Europe. True, the Russians themselves have a huge choice of this silence - any city outside of St. Petersburg and Moscow. But I don’t like the fact that in restaurants and cafes in Minsk, guests (not only Russians) are served at an order of magnitude higher level than their own. This is our mentality.
Philip Chmyr
Philip Chmyr, musician
Snobbery always hurts when it comes from someone you consider a friend. Then he starts to get annoying, and then you start punishing him for it. It seems to me that we are already at the stage of irritation. I would not generalize all Russian tourists, but people of low culture have common features. The problem is that recently there have been many tourists from Russia with these traits. They do not follow traffic rules, ignore parking rules, talk loudly in public places and make loud evaluative statements. There is always something to answer. Any answer begins like this: “Great nation...” And then the options: 1) Build the Moscow-St. Petersburg road. 2) Make your own mobile phone, car, and so on... Belarusian hospitality is a myth. Belarusians are not tolerant, they are even more intolerant of the appearance of other species, they are vindictive: an example is the partisan movement. Therefore, the answer to rudeness can be special service in our cafes (slowly), damage to their cars in the parking lots, subsequent repairs at three roads at our service stations and careless investigations by the cops themselves. I think the cops themselves will soon start fining them for such skating. As they say, “the earth burned under the feet of the occupiers.”
Vasily Andreev
Vasily Andreev, designer
I wanted to write something bad. I knew that for sure. I remember the first point of advice to a Russian tourist began with the following: “In front of the exchanger, you shouldn’t take out 20 thousand rubles and ask with a grin: “And... how much money is that anyway?” Because (bitches) one dollar is your 30 rubles!” But the trip to Barcelona changed me. In the morning, under the balcony I see a mocking inscription: “Now look at this beautiful balcony, a resident of Barcelona is standing on it.” And the events in Kyiv changed me. And the way we drove from Sweden into Denmark changed me. “Welcome to Arab Scandinavia,” said Stefan, meaning that the Danes, according to the Swedes, do not follow laws or traffic rules and generally drink a lot and everywhere. We have not yet had what Scandinavia lives with: a bunch of immigrants who ask in line at the exchange office: “Why do they have coins with holes?” But this is Scandinavia, cold, white and windy. Now remember the number of tourists in southern Europe. I have strong doubts about the tolerance we impose on ourselves. We just don’t know if we are tolerant, because we haven’t allowed anyone in yet. And we already have a lot of questions. Because we get annoyed in line when we hear the question: “Ha ha, what can you do with these five thousand?” And Russians, who come in ridiculous numbers of tourists to Minsk, are our test of the tolerance bar. I’m afraid we haven’t passed it yet.”
Photos of inscriptions on the walls: Vasily Andreev, Barcelona.
Article cover photo: Vasily Andreev
If you notice an error in the text, select it and press Ctrl+Enter
“I’ve never seen people in Belarus dislike Russians so much!” - exclaims 23-year-old Misha, who sent photographs of his crumpled Mercedes to the TUT.BY editorial office. Misha, although a Belarusian, has worked a lot in Russia, loves this country, especially for the hockey team. As a sign of special treatment, he travels with Russian symbols “on board”. Recently, this symbolism began to be torn off, and the car was disfigured. Russians face the same aggression in Minsk.
On the evening of July 20, Misha discovered his mutilated car in a parking lot near Gorky Park. “Two wheels were punctured. At the tire shop they told me that three holes were made in the wheels with an awl. My car is bright. There are Russian flags on the hood, on the sides there are stickers in the color of the Russian flag. They were also torn off with an awl. At the tire shop they weren’t even surprised, they said , that I’m not the first one like this. The master said that before us, a person with Russian license plates came with the same three holes, one after another. That client, it turned out, came to fix the holes, and the next day they punched him again, and he was again. I have to go change tires", - Misha told TUT.BY. On Monday he wrote a statement to the Partizansky district police department of Minsk.
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The young man is Belarusian, but he worked a lot of time in Russia, and he has many relatives there. He and his parents believe that vandalism against cars with Russian symbols is connected with events in Ukraine.
“They say that they don’t like Russians now. And what’s not to love? That’s right, they support their president. But even if you want to support Ukraine, then supporting Ukraine should not be expressed in making another people feel bad. This is not support. Support - This is to appeal to the state. Contact Putin! Why are you doing bad things to the Russians? I’m not a nationalist at all, I don’t get involved in politics,”- says Misha.
In his opinion, political issues should be resolved at the level of governments and presidents, and not at the level ordinary people. “Let governments decide who owes whom, who is to blame, etc.,- says the young man, adding that “This has never happened in Belarus before”.
“I didn’t think that we could have such an attitude towards Russians at all,” says Misha. It was during the World Hockey Championship that he first saw aggression towards Russian symbols. Then Misha told TUT.BY that one evening he was forced to hide in the car because he was almost beaten. In addition, everything was torn out of the car Russian flags. But he wrote a statement to the police only after the last incident: “I see that this hooliganism is becoming regular”, he says.
In mid-May, the tires of a car with Russian license plates were punctured by supermodels Ekaterina Domankova. She found her car at the entrance with slashed tires and four broken windows. The nearby cars with Belarusian license plates were not damaged. "What is this, people??? Why do you have so much hatred??? Why should I feel unsafe in MY BELARUS because of such monsters??? This country is not for scum.<…>Are they deciding to punish me for being associated with Russia? May you not be associated with her 1000 times. Your punishment is already knocking on your door in the form of a bearded “woman”, - the model wrote on her Instagram then.
"In Moscow there are adequate, strong, normal people, we have more impudence in Belarus. People there are purposeful, they work if they want to make money. No one expects help from the state; they try to earn money themselves. I like it in Russia, I feel calm there. I don't think they'll kill me there or anything".
Another young man - 28-year-old Mikhail- came to Belarus from Russia several years ago. Now he has a Belarusian passport, and although his car has Belarusian license plates, the symbols are Russian. On the same day as 23-year-old Misha, he discovered a bullet hole in windshield. "This is the first time I've seen this.- says Mikhail.- There has never been such hostility in Belarus before."
However, he is not going to write a statement to the police, because he hopes that this is an isolated incident. “And I already needed to change the glass, now there’s a reason”, he says.
In parallel, another phenomenon is observed in Belarus - massive both in Minsk and in the regions: Grodno, Orsha, Vitebsk, Brest. The distributors themselves do not say for what purpose this is being done, but it is a fact that we have never seen such a phenomenon before. The police, in turn, do not detain such distributors, as a rule. True, a few days ago in Orsha they stopped the distribution of Russian flags at the Khorobrovo railway crossing. Then it turned out that the symbols were distributed by deaf-mute residents of Borisov. One of them told the police that the flags were brought to them from Russia and given for distribution free of charge.
