Tag Archives: Georgy Zotov

“Russian drunks and invaders.” How they thank us for the liberation in Denmark.

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Has the memory of the soviet feat in WWII been completely erased in Europe? Georgy Zotov is a travelling correspondent of “Argumenty i Fakty”, reporting from various corners of the world.

10 years ago, in 2015, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory he visited several European countries taking the pulse of the historic memory. Back then, we translated many of those articles, and our readers can find them under the tag of Georgy Zotov.

This year, on the eve of the 80th anniversary, he takes a new sample of the level of the historic amnesia in the West.

The reality of the occupation of Denmark by the Germans is reflected in the Danish communist underground book “2 Years”, which we translated in its entirety, with many contextual footnotes. On page 7 there is the following illustration: In the picture we see green hands with a swastika grabbing the supplies. “Eggs” is written on the box. In the text below the picture it says: “- and then everything else.”

“Russian drunks and invaders.” How they thank us for the liberation in Denmark.

– by Georgy Zotov, April 2, 2025. All photographs in the article are by the author.

Inscription on the stella: “Eternal glory to the Russian strongmen, who fell in the battles with the German occupants.”

…An icy wind is blowing from the sea. It’s spring and understandably cold, but it’s amazing how this gloomy island is considered a resort in Denmark. The church and cemetery are located on a hill, the sky is covered with gray clouds. “Where can I buy flowers? I want to put them on the grave,” I ask my driver. “Flowers? There are no tourists here right now, man. They only sell beer.”

I walk up to the doorway. There used to be iron doors with the coat of arms of the USSR, but they have recently disappeared — I will explain why later. I walk to the obelisk with the red star, where the letters are embossed — “Eternal glory to the Russian strongmen, who fell in the battles with the German occupants”. 30 Soviet soldiers who participated in one of the last battles of the Second World War are buried here. On May 9, 1945, Red Army troops landed on Bornholm and captured 11,138 Wehrmacht soldiers. Later, there was a Soviet military base on the island, and it was under Soviet control until our troops left Denmark on April 5, 1946. Do the Danes have gratitude for their liberation, and how do they feel about the Red Army’s presence on Bornholm?

The Battle after the Victory

…First of all, I’ll tell you how it all happened. On May 4, 1945, German divisions surrendered to the British in Denmark. However, the British did not reach the Nazi garrison on Bornholm. Air defence and German Navy ships often opened fire on passing Soviet destroyers and planes flying by. The group on Bornholm hoped to cross to Copenhagen, and once there, surrender to the British — but at the same time they fired at the Red Army. The Soviet command issued an ultimatum to the German units on Bornholm demanding surrender. There was no response, so on May 7 and 8, airstrikes were carried out on the island, during which hundreds of Wehrmacht soldiers were killed. At 14:30 on May 9, 1945, five boats of the Soviet Navy entered the main port of Bornholm, Rønne, and landed an amphibious company. The Germans were told that if they tried to resist, the bombing would resume. The company occupied the telegraph office, the port management building, and cut the communication cables. Three hours later, the garrison in Rønne surrendered. Soviet aircraft sank 10 enemy ships trying to escape from Bornholm and shot down 16 German aircraft. All day there were skirmishes between the Red Army and the Germans, who were fleeing on transports and boats from the island — dozens of our soldiers died. On May 10, a barge was intercepted at sea, on which 800 German soldiers tried to escape.
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“So many? Really?” Germans do not know how many Russians were killed by their ancestors

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In 2015 I translated Georgy Zotov’s article Repentance of Berlin. After 70 years, the Germans have an unambiguous attitude towards the Soviet victory.

This year it elicited the following comment:

LaRock on March 6, 2019 at 19:50 said:
The war is over stop punishing Germany

To which I replied:

Stanislav on March 12, 2019 at 20:02 said:
This comment should be addressed to the USA, who are still occupying and punishing Germany. If you read the article, you’d see that it’s about remembrance and reconciliation.

However, a better reply would have been a translation of an even earlier article by Zotov, one from 2013. I am translating it below, followed by a translation of two reader comments from AiF and my thoughts on them and what Zotov wrote in one particular paragraph.

Today, with racism and calls to war and genocide being the norm on the pages of the Western MSM (“racism” is a common-root synonym of “russophobia”) and the number of the Western troops and war hardware right on the Russian border being the highest since the June of 1941, it is time to remember. For while the West is collectively shrugging off 1941-1945 as “just another invasion of Russia” and preparing for a new one, Russia remembers, watches closely and prepares to defend its land once more.

In this today’s context remembrance is the key to preventing another invasion of Russia by the West, and prevent this time hundreds of millions people being killed – both defenders, attackers and bystanders…

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Apocalypse of Europe
Special report from the flooded by refugees Austria

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This is the second article by travelling journalist Gergy Zotov, in the series about refugee crisis in Europe, published in the newspaper weekly “Arguments and Facts” number 40 9/30/2015. English translation of the first part, about Hungary, can be read here.

Apocalypse of Europe
Special report from the flooded by refugees Austria

“AiF” observer managed to find out: 2 months ago recruits arrived to the Turkish camps for ‘displaced persons’, organising sending of Syrians and Iraqis into the EU. One question remains: who benefits from this?

There’s a complete pandemonium in Vienna’s Westbahnhof station, to which come the packed train from Budapest. Thousands of people are crowding on the platforms, cordoned off by the police – since early morning they are waiting to be sent to Munich. Austria is struggling to get rid of the refugees, including those that are asking for political asylum. However, you can no longer recognise the hungry and exhausted people, whom I saw at the border of Hungary and Serbia. All are smiling, happy to pose for photos, dressed in brand new clothes, many – with smartphones. Before they would grab any food, now they’d come to a food stall, browse through the products, and depart. Refugees learnt in such a short: one does not need to work in Europe . The food here is laid out for free, and you are even begged to take it.

Hangover of a dragon

– Actually, there is a way out, – assures the Austrian Freedom Party activist Christian Lander. – The war in Iraq was unleashed by the US and Britain, they are the very same, who with the help of France and Italy bombed Libya, financed the rebels in Syria. It will be fair if the countries involved in the Arab adventures would share the refugees among themselves. We in Austria already have a lot of problems with migrants, and now every day there come 20,000 more people. I do not understand the silence of the European Union, when America declares, that they will generously host ten thousand Syrians… If you are an “adult” state, and not a clown in short pants, then you are obliged to bear the consequences of your policies. Otherwise it will be as in the joke about the five-headed dragon – one head was drinking schnapps in the evening, and in the morning all heads had hangover together. It would have been appropriate to immediately put the refugees into the buses at the border and “export” them to the EU countries, which created chaos in the Middle East.
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“We have nothing to lose!”
The refugees, who arrived in the European Union are ready to revolt

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This spring I travelled to Austria and Hungary, spending a few days in Vienna, and then reaching Budapest by train. Budapest gave me the impression of a rather clean and sleepy city, a city of contrasts, where some buildings in the main street were in desperate need of repairs, while another building right beside it would glitter with newest uplifting. And overall, a rather friendly city to be in. But nothing spoke of the coming disaster in the form of the hoards of the refugees – both real and for-hire, who would swamp Hungary in only a month’s time…

In this light, the following article in “Argumenty i Fakty” seemed very enlightening. It is written by the travelling journalist Georgy Zotov and is the first article in a series of two, the second telling about the situation in Austria. The original can be read in the newspaper weekly “Arguments and Facts” number 39 9/23/2015. Translation of the second article, pertaining Austria, can be read here.

“We have nothing to lose!”
The refugees, who arrived to the European Union are ready to revolt

Crowds of desperate Arab refugees storm the “entrance” to the EU. However, it is not too late for Europe to join Russia to work together so as to destroy the “Islamic state.” Otherwise, the worst predictions will come true.

You know, it’s just a real apocalypse. Dirt. Everywhere heaps of rubbish. Barking of the police dogs. Thousands of people wander under the cold rain on rusty rail tracks – wet, hungry, exhausted, with children in their arms. At the police cordon volunteers gave them bananas, they sat down on the ground and ate them right there. A hastily built wall on the border did not improve the situation – the refugees climb over it, throwing clothing over the barbed wire. Old railway near the town Rёske (following it, the refugees travel to Hungary on foot) was blocked by a carriage. The Iraqis and Syrians on the Serbian side openly discuss the possibility to dig a tunnel: “Then try to make our way through the forest in Austria and Germany … It is better to sleep off during the day, and walk by night.” Police are trying to put the newcomers into buses to be sent to a filtration camp. Some accept it, others break through the cordon and walk on foot 170 kilometres (!) To Budapest: taxi drivers and drivers of private vehicles are forbidden to give them a lift. Along the road tired refugees sit in groups: to gain strength, then to get up and move on. Crawl they may have to do, but forward – to Europe.

“We will start a rebellion”

– Previously, local Gypsies took the Arabs along the secret paths, asking $500 per person – says the captain of the Hungarian police Attila Rakosi. – Now so many refugees have accumulated, that they can not be held back at a checkpoint. The border is now closed, but will it have any effect? Syrians and Iraqis have gone to a bypass – through Croatia. We do not register people, don’t even look though their passports – as the result, many of the “guests” from the Arab countries scattered across Europe. On many occasions I identify former soldiers among the refugees. When I frankly wonder against whom they fought, I get a scripted response – “for democracy and against Syrian President Assad”. But frankly, it is the “Islamic state” that is fighting against Assad… I have a strong feeling that I’m just losing my mind: perhaps we are witnessing the end of Europe.
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Ungrateful Europe.
What would have happened should we push Hitler back just to our borders

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This is a translation from Russian of two historical articles, published in Argumenty i Fakty on the 3rd of April 2015.
The main article was written by Georgy Zotov. A subsequent expert opinion is presented by historian Rudolph Pihoj.

Soviet soldiers distribute bread to the residents of the city of Breslau during the Great Patriotic War.

On the eve of the 70th anniversary of Victory “AiF” tried to imagine: what would the map of Europe look like, had USSR not given thousands of kilometres of territories as present to those countries that now call us occupiers. And if they would give up these lands now.

Wroclaw – one of the most touristic cities of Poland. Crowds with cameras are everywhere, there’s not a spare spot in the expensive restaurants, taxi drivers ask for ungodly prices. At the entrance to the marketplace there waves a banner saying “Wroclaw – a real Polish charm!”. All seems fine, but as early as in May 1945 Wroclaw was called Breslau and had not belonged to Poland for 600 consecutive(!) years before that. The Victory Day, now referred by Warsaw as “the beginning of the communist tyranny,” added to Poland the German Silesia, Pomerania, as well as 80% of East Prussia. No one mentions this now: in other words that was a tyranny, but we’d still grab that land. “AiF” observer decided to understand, what would the map of Europe look like now, if our former brothers in the East were left without the help of the “occupiers”?

Whole cities as gifts

– In 1945 Poland received the cities of Breslau, Gdansk, Zielona Gora, Legnica, Szczecin, – says Maciej Wisniewski, a Polish freelance journalist. – USSR also gave the territory of Bialystok; with the mediation of Stalin, we acquired a disputed with Czechoslovakia city Kłodzko. Nevertheless, they believe here: the partitioning of Poland by the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact, when the Soviet Union took the Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, was unfair, but the transfer by Stalin to Poland of Silesia and Pomerania is absolutely fair, you can not dispute this. It is fashionable to say now that Russians did not liberate, but conquered. However, it turns into an interesting kind of occupation, when Poland got for free a quarter of Germany: and on top of it, hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers shed their blood for this land. Even the GDR resisted, not wanting to give Szczecin to the Poles – the dispute over the city was finally solved only in 1956, under pressure from the USSR.

Apart from the Poles, the Baltic States express a strong indignation by the “occupation”. Well, it’s worth remembering: the current capital – Vilnius – was also presented to Lithuania by the USSR; by the way, the Lithuanian population of Vilnius was then… barely 1%, with Polish being the majority. USSR returned to the Republic the city of Klaipeda – Prussian Memel, owned by Lithuanians in the 1923-1939, and annexed by the Third Reich. Already back in 1991 the Lithuanian leadership condemned the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but no one returned neither Vilnius to Poland, nor Klaipeda to Germany.
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Repentance of Berlin.
After 70 years, the Germans have an unambiguous attitude towards the Soviet victory

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Below is my translation of an article by Georgy Zotov, published in “Argumenty i Fakty” on the 6th of March 2015.

– Excuse me, but where is the monument to Soviet soldiers?

– Stay on the road. Walk a little further and you’ll immediately see the gates.

The memorial in Berlin’s Treptow Park is the largest outside the former Soviet Union, and one is immediately struck by its size. Police strolls by, watching order, cleaners gather fallen branches. People come here all the time – and, surprisingly, not only the residents of the former East Germany (GDR), but also quite the Westen Germans. I met a businessman from Hamburg, a 34-year-old Herbert Müller, who made a special trip to the monument – to lay flowers and pay tribute to the Soviet soldiers. A situation that is quite difficult to imagine in today’s Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic.

Traffic controller Katya Spivak at the crossroads of Berlin. May 1945. Photo: RIA Novosti / Jacob Ryumkin

“The monstrous meat grinder”

– On the 9th of May I always think about the suffering of the German and Soviet soldiers, who were involved in a terrible slaughter, the bloodiest in human history – Herbert tells me. – Do you know what angers me the most right now? Politicians in Western Europe forgot about the Second World War and are aggressively pushing us for a showdown with Russia. They learned nothing from 50 million victims. How would supplies of modern weapons to Ukraine help to maintain truce in this country? We can not change anything in the last war, but we can prevent the next: that’s what we have to think about!

Herbert Mueller never saw his grandfather – he was killed near Moscow in December 1941. The same story, with a few exceptions, will be told by almost every German – grandfathers in the service in the army, the SS, the Gestapo, fighting in the Volkssturm. Some died at the front, some were captured, and some even hanged as war criminals: I got to talk to a woman, whose grandfather served in the Majdanek concentration camp. However, I heard nothing negative with regard to the Victory Day, in contrast to our former friends from Eastern Europe. Of course, for the Germans, the 8-9 May is not a national holiday, but rather an occasion for mourning for the dead relatives. Something that no one has forgotten, is the bombing of Berlin and other cities by the Anglo-American aviation. “40,000 civilians were killed in Hamburg in 1943, two years later in Dresden – 25,000. We can’t even put a memorial to them – the “allies” of Germany will misunderstand – says businessman Volker Heinecke, who in 1942, as a two-year child, was kidnapped by the Nazis from the USSR and placed in an SS child centre “Lebensborn”. – I was five years old, but I remember very well how residential neighbourhoods of Hamburg burned: the bombs fell nearby”.
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Prague Winter.
What is the Czechs’ attitude towards the coming 70th anniversary of the Victory?

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Below is my translation of an article by Georgy Zotov, published in “Argumenty i Fakty” on the 27th of February 2015. The title is a play on concepts. “Prague Spring” was a period of political and cultural liberalisation of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Over the last 25 years they repeatedly tried to rewrite history in the Czech Republic so as to show – Prague was liberated by whoever, but not by the Soviet troops. However, this period is now referred to by some citizens of the country as “madness”.

– When was Prague liberated? We celebrate the Victory Day on 8th of May. I do not know what happened there. It seems that the Americans wanted to help the Czechs, who revolted against the SS. But they were prevented by the Russians. Anyway, that’s what we were taught.

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Blood and Vienna.
Even After 70 Years the Soviet Soldiers Are Respected in Austria

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Below is a translation of an article by Georgy Zotov, published in “Argumenty i Fakty” on the 20th of February 2015. The title is a play on words. “Vienna” is written the same as the word “vein” in Russian.

In contrast to our former allies in Eastern Europe, it is well understood in Austria: in 1945 Soviet troops freed their country from the regime of Adolf Hitler.

A very old, completely grey-haired man tells me how to get to the ​​Schwarzenberg square. “You have an interesting accent. Are you Russian?” – “Yes.” He immediately switches over to my mother tongue, pronouncing some words with difficulty. “My name is Helmut Hurst, for two years I was with you as a … war-time-prisoner. Got mobilised to the Volkssturm straight from school in April forty-five, when your troops entered Vienna. No training, got handed a rifle with no bullets – and forward into the fray for the great Fuhrer. I’m not dead only thanks to the Russians, although I was captured with weapons in my hands. Thank you.”

USSR saved us

After the statements of the Republic of Poland and the Baltic states that the anniversary of Victory is not a liberation, but the beginning of a “new occupation”, you come to Austria as if to another planet. A completely different attitude. The press service of the capital gladly told me: for the 70th anniversary of the entry of the Red Army into Vienna, they plan to lay flowers at the monument to Soviet soldiers, conduct a memorial service at the site of the Mauthausen concentration camp, open the Museum of the liberation of Vienna, and even stage theatrical performances.

The Red Army entered the city on April 5th 1945, and already on April 13th the remnants of the Nazi army in the capital of Austria (then part of the Third Reich) surrendered. Soviet troops remained in Vienna for a little more than a decade – they left after the restoration of the sovereignty of Austria as an independent state.

– Austrians seriously differ from Eastern Europe in terms of the perception of the Second World War – explains historian and researcher Gerhard Zauner. – In 1945, Poland and Czechoslovakia met Russians with flowers, rejoicing and shouting “Hurrah!”, the girls hung on their necks of your soldiers. 70 years later the Poles and Czechs pretend that there was no liberation at all, that only “new occupants” came to them. It’s completely different in Austria. Brainwashed by Goebbels’ propaganda, people were waiting: that any moment bearded Cossacks will appear on the streets of Vienna and will devour the Austrian babies. Back then we did not consider ourselves to be victims of Nazism, because Austria welcomed Hitler and fought together with the Germans. However, after 70 years, many of our citizens are grateful to your people.

First, the USSR rescued a small nation from further destruction – hundreds of thousands of Austrians have already been killed and the Western and on the Eastern Fronts. Secondly, Vienna was not subjected to massive air strikes, and this is preserved the historical neighbourhoods. Third, at the demand of the USSR, Austria became a neutral state, and later our guys did not die in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Flowers on the graves

Austrian press has organized an opinion poll: “Do you want to dismantle the monument to Soviet soldiers?”. 91%(!) of Austrian voted against. And while our former friends in Eastern Europe are now publicly announcing May 9, 1945 as the beginning of the “Soviet tyranny”, for millions of people in Austria, this date is the liberation, and not a conquest. Austria finances maintenance of military cemeteries, where Soviet soldiers are buried (in the storming of Vienna 40,000 people were killed), and restoring monuments at their own expense. Driving through the eastern part of the country, I saw with my own eyes how the villagers (and not only the elderly ones) bring flowers to the graves of our soldiers. When I asked them why they do this, they were amazed by the question: “These are our liberators!”

But there is a fly in the ointment. For six consecutive years, on the eve of May 9th, hooligans poured paint on monument to Soviet soldiers on Schwarzenberg square: either black, or (on the last occasion) yellow-blue. The fence behind the monument, as well as containers for projectors are covered by graffiti. Attackers have not been found, although in Vienna City Hall assured me that now the perimeter is covered by video cameras: the crime is unlikely to happen again.

The fence behind the monument to our soldiers is covered with graffiti. Photo: AiF/ Georgy Zotov

“Enough Christmas trees for all”

– First of all the suspicion falls on neo-Nazis – we have more and more problems with the radicals of the right-wing movements, – thinks the ex-worker of the Communist Party of Austria, Alexander Neumann. – There is a version that vandals are visitors from Poland or Ukraine. Although, of course, Austria is responsible for such incidents. But, you must agree, it’s a couple of cases – not a mass phenomenon. When the memorial on the square Schwarzenberg was spilled with paint last year, dozens of volunteers organised a vigil at the monument, and one of them vowed to “punch the face the Nazis are not respecting Russians.”

Austrian politicians are delicate in their comments on the topic og 70th anniversary of the appearance in Vienna of the Soviet troops. According to the press service of the Parliament, “different views are expressed: most people would say that this was a liberation, a minority – that a military defeat, but no one would call the entry of the Red Army in Vienna for and illegal occupation. In Austrian history school books, the point of view is clear: 1945 is a year of the liberation of Austria, and nothing else.”

“We must admit, all kinds of things happened, – says the former soldier of Volkssturm Helmut Hurst. – Soviet troops stayed with us for 10 years, there were love affairs, Austrians gave birth to children, and then classmates teased the poor kids as “ferfluhter russen” – “cursed Russians”. My neighbour did not like the Russians – a Soviet truck damaged his lawn. Another neighbour scolded bureaucracy: to move from one area of Vienna to another, you had to obtain five commandant seals of the USSR. However, after seventy years, we are grateful to the Russians for getting rid of Hitler. In captivity, I worked in a sawmill. Since then, if someone is talking about a possible war with Russia, I say, “No problem. Russians taught us to fell trees in the POW camps … there are a lot more Christmas trees there – enough for everyone!”

The Hungarian Amnesia. How do people on the Danube treat the anniversary of the liberation of Budapest

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Below is a translation of an article by Georgy Zotov, published in “Argumenty i Fakty” on the 13th of February 2015:

Red Army soldiers in the battle for Budapest.

Despite the fact that Hungary joined Hitler and attacked the USSR, the position of the local historians is often the same: in 1945 the country became a “victim of Soviet tyranny.” Is this true? An “AiF” observer is trying to make sense of the situation.

In number 3 of “AiF” we published a report from Poland “The Sorrow of a Warsaw Woman” (English translation here): why Polish politicians and the media ignored the memory of Soviet soldiers who liberated Warsaw. The article caused an unprecedented surge of responses and questions from readers: how do things stand with memory in other European countries? In this regard, commemorating the 70th anniversary of Victory, “AiF” begins a series of reports from European capitals that the Red Army occupied after Warsaw: on February 13, 1945 it liberated Budapest.

Soldier with PCA was removed

– Of course, we are absolutely not like Poles – a freelance journalist Laszlo Kovacs, who in 1981-1986 studied in the USSR, politely starts the conversation. – In Hungary, there is no general negative attitude towards Russia, our Prime Minister is in favour of the construction of the “South Stream” and the cessation of the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions. However, as in the rest of Eastern Europe, our media since 1989, hammered into people’s minds the same thing, that in 1945 the evil Russians came here and brought on tips of their bayonets the communist regime. We tend to forget that in fact it was Hungary that joined Hitler and declared war on the Soviet Union and sent to the Eastern Front hundreds of thousands of soldiers – during the Battle of Stalingrad a whole Hungarian army perished there. We took the land of the neighbours in Romania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia. In just one year the Hungarian police and SS together with the Germans destroyed 450,000 local Jews and 28,000 Gypsies. It’s just awful. The Red Army saved Hungarians from becoming a Nazi monsters.

Before and after: a monument to our soldiers completely anonymised. Photo: RIA Novosti, AIF / Georgy Zotov


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The Sorrow of a Warsaw Woman. Why Poland is not happy to be liberated from fascism?

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In a very strong post by Lada Ray, Wake Up, the Soldier of Ukraine!, a reader Paul commented the following:

You know, seeing how the Poles and Galicians view Russia, I would say that Russia’s attempts to sweep things under the rug with ideas of Slavic brotherhood and such were not wise. Even within the Ukraine, Eastern Ukrainians saying “We are brothers” while Western Ukrainians said “We are not brothers” didn’t work out so well. It might have been better to say “We are cousins; we don’t always agree, but let’s work together when we can.” A bit of an overgeneralisation, but you get the idea. The point is that you have to stand up for yourself in this world, and get your position across, particularly when it seems like you are facing a bully.

One can make the case that the Soviet and Russian leadership wanted a huge Ukraine that contains too many groups and cultures as a way to prevent NATO or nationalism from gaining territory. The drawback is it really isn’t a normal country, and this made it easy for the West to take over with Bandera types.

I think that the reason Russia was not overly-concerned with brotherly nations forgetting the positive aspects of Russia, was because Russians themselves would not forget or deny the help that they receive and would not think it necessary to remind of such acts in return. In a way, reminding someone of the acts of kindness from you can be viewed as an insult. Turns out it was not so self-evident that reminders were not in order…

It looks like the common Poles still remember, though, as illustrated by the following article by Georgy Zotov, published in Argumenty i Fakty on the 15th of January. Translated to English below, by yours truly.

G. Zotov is a travelling journalists, living in various, often dangerous, parts of the world and getting to know the local people. His articles are always a revelation about the moods of the people “lower down”, often contrasting with what we hear from MSM from the “higher ups”.

The title is a refrain on the wartime march Farewell of a Slavic Woman.

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Velvet Divorce? – “Ukraine has already collapsed.” An AiF columnist on the political crisis in the country

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This is a translation from Russian of an article by Georgy Zotov, published in the international paper edition of Argumenty i Fakty #7/2014. Yanukovich is still the president, but the coup is being fostered by Washington. Zotov takes a look at what would happen, and as we can now see, his predictions turned to be pretty accurate.

“Ukraine has already collapsed.” An AiF columnist on the political crisis in the country

In Crimea that have already made it clear that they will not share the path of a “Banderite” Ukraine.

“The Battle for Kiev” may end up with break-up of the country

What happens if during the overthrow of Yanukovych, an anti-Russian regime comes to power? Will the republic split up (as it is predicted for her since 1991) into two parts? “AIF” observer considered both versions of events.

My Ukrainian friend, a businessman from Lugansk, is extremely dissatisfied with the behaviour of the Russian customs. The day before, his truck with candy stuck on the border with the Russian Federation – and perhaps will stand there for ten more days. My friend (a big supporter of Maidan) is terribly outraged by this fact, because it incurs losses. “Listen, you’re a fan of Ukraine’s rapprochement with the European Union, friends say ironically to him. – You could have sold all of the West.” “What do you mean?” the businessman is genuinely surprised “You can’t just like that wedge into a European market.” While stores in Russia, taking cheap Ukrainian candy, started making smaller purchases of Russian ones. So I’ll say a blasphemous thing that will not be to everyone’s taste: our economy will BENEFIT from establishing an anti-Russian government in Kiev.

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