By Arkadiy Babchenko, independent journalist, creator of Journalism without intermediaries
02.09.2015
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine

“You will get the next Manezhka, only [this time] squared.”

Regarding the “Antimaidan:” one obvious thing, which in light of it’s obviousness I did not really want to talk about,  nevertheless I see it’s not so obvious to everyone. The Surgeon [leader of the Night Wolves bikers club] and Starikov [Russian politician, Antimaidan supporter] can beat their chests and yell about preventing the Orange Revolutions and the wiles of the US State Department all they like. That’s not the problem.

Your problem, guys, is not with the hipsters. And not with the nerdy liberals. Your problem is that in the course of one year you have managed to do what the hipster-liberal-activist-American-Memorial-stateDepartments couldn’t do in fifteen years.

You have managed to alienate the nationalist Ultras.

And it’s not just about this one particular person, who is far beyond making his first video, although this time he is being quite tough.

Video – “You are not just brothers, you are biatches”! A Russian nationalist from the Russian troops in Ukraine / Donetsk, Lugansk [in Russian]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut8ZJKWepw0#t=38

And it’s not even about the fact that the Russian rally for the first time this year happened in two places – the pro-Ukrainian Ultras marched in Lublino, while the pro-Imperial retirees – in Tushino, specifically, so that they don’t clash. And in Lublino, along with the famous song from Kharkiv, you could also hear “Glory to Ukraine.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1U45OgKPXM

The problem is that right here, three Ultras were walking past some vatnik picket, which was calling for the execution of [Nadiya] Savchenko– and via a popular method, that is, using physical violence– made it clear that by no means does everyone agree with their approach.

Watch from 2:30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_59XaKlY-ks

The fact is that at every liberal rally for peace, or against corruption, there are groups of young sporty guys with soccer fan scarves who walk in small groups among the nerdy liberals and just wait for the opportunity to settle differences with the patriotic-minded anti-maidaners.

So your problem is not with the nerdy liberals at all. Those you can cover in a brilliant green, turn over their tables in a cafe or even knock out a couple of teeth with police assistance – that won’t be a problem.

Your problem is that in just one year you have managed to get completely different groups and segments of the population to hate you.

So if your wish of a mass, hand-to-hand fight comes true – God protect us all from that, of course – you will get not that harmless Bolotnaya [riot case].

You will get the next Manezhka rally in Moscow [of May 2014 against Russian occupation of Crimea, war in Ukraine, and internal policies of Putin – Ed. Note], only squared [this time].

And if I were you, I would watch over the nerdy, harmless liberals very closely. Because nature abhors a vacuum. And once you clean up, jail, and run over the intellectuals with their balloons – instead of them, the streets will be overrun by underage kids with baseball bats and guys with pitchforks.

Such are the laws of sociology, they cannot be helped.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/kanut.leifson/posts/682637208528779

Original Babchenko post: http://m.nv.ua/opinion/babchenko/o-rossiyskom-antimaydane-i-nacionalisticheskih-ultras-33536.html