‘Russians Love to Compare Their Country with the US But They Should Focus on Belarus Because It is Where They’re Heading,’ Vitorgan Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 12 – “In Russia,” Maksim Vitorgan says, “people love to compare themselves with America, but in fact, [they] need to carefully look at Belarus” because what is happening there, “the transformation of an authoritarian regime into a totalitarian one” is what Russians face in their own country.

            The Russian actor says that he well remembers the time when Lukashenka was called “the last dictator in Europe,” something that allowed Russians to think better of their own country than it in fact deserves (gordonua.com/blogs/maksim-vitorgan/v-rossii-lyubyat-sravnivat-sebya-s-amerikoy-no-na-samom-dele-nam-nado-vnimatelno-smotret-na-belarus-my-idem-tuda-1513615.html).

            Russians looked on as Lukashenka closed opposition media and persecuted journalists, brutally suppressed demonstrations and carried off their participants to prison and torture.  And Russians assumed that in Belarus, everyone was at risk of being arrested and having his or her property expropriated, Vitorgan says.

            But today, he continues, when one talks about such things, it isn’t clear whether one is speaking about Belarus or Russia because the same things are happening in our country too.

            Russians don’t like to admit that. They prefer to continue to compare themselves with America because that “flatters us and boosts our status in our own eyes” because it suggests Russia is moving in the direction many would like to see.  But in fact, Russians should be looking at Belarus because the Belarusian path is the one Russia is on.

            Moreover, Vitorgan argues, the situation in Russia will be much worse because “everything will be multiplied by the resources those close to the throne have accumulated, by ethnic and religious divides, and by separatism,” to name only the most obvious factors that will lead to the rise of totalitarianism at home.

            The actor says that he very much hopes he is mistaken, “but in this case, I do not believe in miracles.” Many Belarusians are struggling against this tide, far more than Russians who are many times more numerous. They understand and Russians need to that while no one is required to be a hero, everyone must choose between heroic action or participation in shameful things.

            For the present, Russians need to celebrate and support Belarusian resistance to Lukashenka’s efforts to make his country into a new totalitarian regime. They will then have to think about how they can resist Putin who is trying to do exactly the same thing in the Russian Federation.