A Russian man living in Ireland is protesting against his home country’s invasion of Ukraine and says the majority of ordinary Russian people do not support the war.
Iurii Ivanov (35), a software engineer living in Limerick for the past five years, stood on O’Connell Street holding a poster showing a photograph of Russian president Vladimir Putin behind the bars of a jail cell.
The poster reads: “Tribunal for the War Criminal. I am a Russian, and I demand Putin to STOP the unlawful war in Ukraine NOW!”
Mr Ivanov said he knows that supporting an end to the war may bring “consequences” for him should he try to return to his homeland, but he says he wants the world to know that he and more back in Russia “cannot trust or love our own country anymore”.
He said Russians who encourage sanctions against Russia could be poisoned, jailed or lose their jobs.
“I cannot publicly support sanctions against Russia. The penalties are much higher for everything in Russia, and for political stuff it is much higher, sometimes you can get poisoned, as we all know; Russia is a dangerous place.”
Fear
Mr Ivanov said the biggest weapon in Putin’s armoury is not tanks or bombs — “it’s fear”.
“The country went through the Soviet years and we know about Stalin, my own great grandad died in Stalin’s camps. Every Russian family has suffered from our State, and if you get an order to do something, you do what they say, because otherwise, you must understand, they will very likely punish you, your whole family, your friends.”
Television news reports showing anti-war protesters being detained by Russian police in St Petersburg is “nothing new” under the Putin regime.
“It’s how Putin and the Russian state deals with anybody that doesn't agree with them. It has been this way for a long time.”
Criticising Putin can also result in being “put to jail for 15 days or up to a month, but they will also take care of you not ever getting any job in most of large companies, or your relatives will suffer”.
“People who work in universities, schools, anywhere, they lose their jobs, they know how to feed their families so they say nothing.”
'It is a disaster for Russia itself'
Mr Ivanov said he will “absolutely not” take up arms for Russia.
He said he emigrated from Russia to Germany and then to Ireland because he could not support Russia’s invasion and subsequent annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.
“When Crimea was called part of Russia, we couldn't stand it and we left. Right now, the invasion in Ukraine is absolutely insane, and many (ordinary) people in Russia recognise this very, very well, everybody there understands that this is a crime and is murder, and it cannot be justified.”
“It’s not only a disaster for Ukraine, and for peace, it is a disaster for Russia itself. The main thing is people in Russia used to stand on the idea that we were proud of our country because we survived so many invasions and we protected our lands so many times, and we weren’t aggressors ourselves - they do not see things this way anymore.
“There is a feeling among Russians that we have probably not done enough. I was part of opposition (to Putin) for a long time and we tried to fight Putin for quite a while but unfortunately we failed - Now I’m feeling like maybe if I pushed harder I would probably have saved so many lives, it’s just awful.”
Irish citizenship
Mr Ivanov said he hopes to apply for Irish citizenship as returning to Russia for the foreseeable future is not an option.
“The way things are, I still have many friends and relatives in Russia, but I don't know if I will be ok to keep my Russian citizenship after this, even if it means I might never be able to visit (home) again. Keeping my Russian citizenship kind of means that I am ok with (the war) and I am anything but ok with it, and there are so many more who feel the same way.”
He said he and his wife, Olga, and their Limerick-born daughter are “grateful to Ireland” for its warm welcome five years ago.
“We really hope people here understand that Russians and Putin are different things”.
