Le Grand Soir (with the help of its readers) sent Loïc and Erwan, two of its journalists, to Russia—to Moscow—and to the war-torn Donbas region, to make a film. While we wait for the final version, here is the first part of the written account of this report.

Two special correspondents from Le Grand Soir in Russia
Russian Fragments (1)

"Unity is where Russia is"

It wasn't easy. It cost us several months of waiting, three flight changes, and quite a bit of stress, but in the end, the Russian authorities granted us visas as journalists. "Ura!" as the Russians say! With the coveted visas in hand, Erwan and I were able to travel to Moscow via Istanbul, as there are no longer any direct flights since the sanctions. The city welcomed us in its finest winter attire, with mountains of snow on the sidewalks. A record, we were told; it hadn't snowed like this for several years. The capital is modern, clean, gigantic, and beautiful. The shops and restaurants are bustling, and the cafes are packed by late afternoon. During rush hour, the subway corridors are packed, as in many major cities. Some would almost forget that the country is at war if it weren't for certain details that constantly remind them. His nose glued to his phone screen, Erwan tries to locate the street we're on. "I don't understand, we should be here," he says, searching for a sign to decipher the Cyrillic script. Then suddenly he realizes, "That's right! Drones!" He had seen, he says, in a video clip online, that the geolocation was rendered inaccurate due to satellite jamming, a security measure.

Since launching its "Special Military Operation," which led it to enter Ukrainian territory on February 24, 2022, Russia has become a central player in geopolitics. In about twenty years, it has gone from being an ally of Washington to a declared enemy of NATO. Almost in spite of itself, Russia has transformed into a kind of standard-bearer for what is called the "Global South," where the dream of retaliating has long been cherished. Jean Ziegler used this as the title of one of his books, *The Hatred of the West*. Yet, Russia is no longer the Soviet Union. And in the realm of intellectual debate, it occupies an essential place in international affairs. Among these is the ever-present question: Is Russia imperialist? On this point, communists are divided. *Le Grand Soir* had already given a platform to one of them, in the Donbas (see the article "The Art of the Possible - The Communists' Position on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine"). For some, it is an inter-imperialist conflict, but for others, it is above all a war of liberation that Moscow is waging in Ukraine. How should one position oneself? It must be said that these are confusing times. In this emerging multipolar world, it is difficult to discern any ideological homogeneity. Venezuela, a country on the left; Russia, a country on the right; China... a middle country? (Easy). Of course, one could discuss or write at length about the nature of the current conflict, its stakes, and its consequences, but on the ground, the war at least has the advantage of imposing a minimal clarification: it forces one to take a stand.

“Russia is a conservative and liberal country, but it’s the only one fighting imperialism,” asserts Svetlana Tsiberganova. A Ukrainian from Donetsk and a former activist with the communist organization Borotba, she now lives in Moscow. For her, “The Special Military Operation is just another chapter in the Ukrainian civil war, and let’s not kid ourselves, many people in the Donbas were waiting for the Russian intervention.” A left-wing activist, Svetlana knows the price her political commitment paid in post-Maidan Ukraine. Hunted down, intimidated, imprisoned, or simply killed, revolutionary activists were the first targets of nationalist battalions and other neo-Nazis. From Vadim Papura, burned alive in the 2014 fire at the Trade Unions House in Odessa, to the repressive harassment of the two leaders of the Ukrainian Communist Youth, Mikhail and Alexander Kononovich, all of the country's progressive forces have been stifled. This gag was further tightened with the intensification of the conflict in 2022. That year, President Volodymyr Zelensky banned 11 political parties on the accusation of being "pro-Russian," the majority of them being on the left of the political spectrum. Although not in power, the Russian left enjoys a much wider political leeway than its Ukrainian counterpart.

“The left doesn’t support the Russian government’s economic decisions, but it does support it regarding the Special Military Operation,” summarizes Andrei Rozhkov, a young cardiologist and researcher at Moscow State Medical University. A Marxist, he agreed to meet us in a café in the capital to share his perspective on the conflict. In 2013, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych rejected an offer from the International Monetary Fund, deeming the quid pro quo—a series of austerity-style structural reforms—too unpopular. In exchange, the government leaned toward financial aid offered by Moscow. We remember what followed: the 2014 Kyiv riots, snipers firing into crowds, a corrupt president on the run, and the Donbas engulfed in flames… “For eight years, Russia sought a compromise with its European partners to end the conflict, but to no avail,” explains Andrei. For him, the Ukrainian question “was the straw that broke the camel’s back” and forced Russia to intervene violently. “Many people see this as imperialism, but that’s because they’re confusing the terms,” the young man explains. “Russia isn’t in an aggressive economic position internationally; its economy is negligible.” With these words, Andrei’s analysis paraphrases those of other comrades, notably the activist Aymeric Monville, who, in an article published in Le Grand Soir, explained that Russia had not (yet?) reached the imperialist stage because, “according to international rankings of banks by capitalization,” it “has only one bank among the world’s top one hundred, a situation comparable to that of countries like Finland, Norway, or Qatar, and in no way comparable to the true imperialist centers.” While finishing the tea he had ordered, Andrei continued the discussion with an interesting anecdote: "Within my professional sector, we can see a class schism that was created with the launch of the Special Operation. Most doctors, who are traditionally liberal and historically against the government, fled Russia from 2022 onwards to go to the West; on the other hand, among healthcare professionals of a lower economic level, such as nurses or caregivers, there is real support for the Special Operation.” 

According to most polling institutes, such as VTsIOM (Russian Public Opinion Research Center) and the Levada Center, President Vladimir Putin continues to enjoy strong popular approval, although after four years of war this support is beginning to erode. But in the streets of Moscow, no protest is visible, not even symbolic. There are no graffiti or hastily pasted anti-war posters; the walls are silent. It should be noted that there is no militarization of public spaces. Law enforcement is conspicuously visible in tourist areas (for example, Red Square) but discreet in other parts of the city. Occasionally, a patrol car stops a driver for a check. Otherwise, the atmosphere is not that of a capital under extreme surveillance. Although every time you enter a subway station, you have to go through a metal detector, and every backpack must pass through an X-ray scanner (much to Erwan's delight, as he constantly carries his camera equipment), there's a sign that the tide has turned. Many Chinese-made cars are visible on the roads, and many Western signs have disappeared, replaced by local versions that mimic their color schemes: Vkusno i Tochka (Вкусно — и точка, "delicious, period") has replaced McDonald's, and Rostic's has taken over from KFC. And to really confirm Moscow's alignment with the East, Erwan and I even made a point of having lunch at a new North Korean restaurant that recently opened in the capital.

“The sanctions accelerated a realization among the ruling elite, who understood the need to develop a clean industry and preserve our sovereignty,” explains Katerina Volkova. A journalist and blogger, she manages a Telegram channel (with over 10,000 subscribers) and a channel on VK, the Russian social network. The young woman also teaches political economy and identifies as close to the economist and philosopher Mikhail Popov, founder of the Workers' Party of Russia (a communist organization). Highly structured in her responses, Ms. Volkova describes the country's evolution in recent years: "Between 1990 and 2000, after the collapse of the USSR, the government's economic policy consisted of privatizing and deindustrializing the country. From the 2000s onward, this practice was slowed, but there was no plan to create new industries. Then came 2014 and the first wave of sanctions following the Crimean crisis. From that point on, a shift occurred within the ruling circle, and a clean industrial development began. Initially, this was primarily military, but it quickly encompassed other sectors. By 2022, the country was ready to absorb the second wave of sanctions." According to the economist, European hostility toward Russia has, paradoxically, been beneficial. “If we focus solely on GDP, we might think the situation was better in the past,” explains Ms. Volkova, “but that’s not true. Before, we were a Third World country; now there is economic sovereignty and, above all, Russia is once again playing an independent geopolitical role.” Faced with the withdrawal of “Western partners,” she emphasizes that “China” has stepped in to fill the void in many sectors. “Of course, it’s not socialism,” the young Marxist adds, tempering her statement. “Russia remains a capitalist country, but I think it’s moving toward state capitalism.”

An evening taxi ride through the streets of Moscow confirms that the country is far from being "on its knees," as some Western politicians would have it. On either side of the vehicle, the city unfolds like a long ribbon of lights: flashing neon signs, giant billboards extolling the virtues of the latest Chinese cell phones or home delivery services, and residential buildings whose windows cast thousands of yellow panes against the night sky. In places, colored spotlights bathe the Stalinist-era facades in gold or orange, transforming the old buildings into spaceships with their noses pointing skyward. It will be a short night for us. Early the next morning, we must get to Paveletskaya station, where we will take the train to Rostov-on-Don, in the southwest of the country. It is the last major city on the road to the Donbas. Our last stop before Donetsk.

Loïc RAMIREZ

https://www.legrandsoir.info/fragments-russes-1.html

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