To acquaintances, about politics

Some of my contacts have deleted and banned me, accusing me of nationalism, fascism and the rest of it. Although I don't consider myself a nationalist, I don't even qualify as a patriot of the country, because I have a dream of living in another country and didn't believe my country could ever come close to such a thing, I don't rule out the possibility of moving to another country and I'm ready, right now, to work for non-Ukrainian companies. The Maidan only showed that in theory Ukraine might someday become a civilized country where one can live happily even in old age, but the road is not a short one.

And I'm certainly not a nationalist, because I've never agreed with acquaintances of mine, Ukrainians, who advocate completely severing ties with Russia, expelling Russians from the country and dropping an iron curtain, although Russia's recent actions are forcing me, against my will, to take the side of the Ukrainian nationalists. Most of my friends are from Russia, and I'm not against Russians in general, it upsets me that right now the authorities of both countries are tearing apart peoples who are close, who have a lot in common.

Yes, I'm against the Russian occupiers on Ukraine's territory, I disagree with Putin's policy toward Ukraine and for this I get branded a Banderite and banned. I don't like that 90 km from me they've seized a part of my country's land, set up a border. And all of this is covered up with brazen, wild lies, including the story that my city also wants to join Russia and that there are also numerous rallies for Russia going on here and seizures of the administration by pro-Russians, which in reality is not the case. The bit about the oppression of Russians is utter nonsense, because at the age of 10 I moved from the center of the country to the south, not knowing the Russian language, and it was hard for me, since everything here was in Russian. In the village I grew up with my grandfather who, although he speaks Ukrainian, finds everything Ukrainian alien and is for Russia, another reason why nationalism is foreign to me. Oppression of Ukrainian is easier to find here than oppression of Russian, though you can find both if you go looking.

Lately I've been shouting about Russia's military intervention and against Putin. Although I supported the Maidan too, back then I kept quiet and didn't shout my opinion on the matter, because I understood that things wouldn't get better right away and at first would even get worse. I'm not thrilled with the current Ukrainian authorities either, but for me personally this is better than Putin's rule, I'll agree that under Yanukovych it really was worse than under Putin in Russia and Ukraine was sliding into the abyss. I was always dissatisfied with the policy of the Russian authorities, but I kept quiet, because I'm a citizen of another country and it wasn't my concern. I consider it wrong to meddle in another people's affairs and to think you know what they need better than they do. If most Russians like Putin, then that's their business — I respect their opinion.

But when another state invades the territory of my country and they start calling on me to advocate joining Russia and to start studying the constitution of the Russian Federation, deciding for me that I should be a citizen of Russia, that I cannot respect. I respect people who oppose the current authorities and oppose the Maidan, but only as long as joining Russia isn't, for them, the one correct solution to all problems. If a Ukrainian advocates joining Russia, then I can't consider such a person a Ukrainian, I can consider and respect him as a Russian if he argues his position reasonably, without quoting the lying Kremlin-Kiselyov propaganda.

It's funny that my friendship fell apart, or we never got past acquaintance, with those who support Putin, even before the Maidan, and there were mundane, personal reasons for this, ones not touching on politics at all. It's a matter of worldview, our worldviews differ, which means we disagree on all sorts of things and friendship becomes impossible, and the political situation is only a catalyst and a confirmation of this.

I understand perfectly well that all people are different and that, for the most part, different peoples also have different mentalities, so I can respect and reckon with various opinions, even if I don't fully agree with them, as long as they aren't the result of sheer lies, manipulation and don't speak for me. I've seen fairly reasonable opinions in favor of Crimea joining Russia, I disagree with them and I dislike them, but I respect them and won't call the author of such a thing a fascist. It's your right to call me a nationalist and a Russophobe for this, although I don't agree with you on it and neither will my close Russian friends :)