
Annoncering

Viktor Neganov: I started because of the regime of Yanukovych and because of the loss of the lives when he was president. Many people died to live in this political and economic system. I, like other activists, was going out to the streets and saying that things should be changed.When I met you in Sevastopol in February, even before Yanukovych absconded and Russian troops invaded Crimea, you told me that there were Russian FSB spies and pro-Russian provocateurs who were disrupting your Euromaidan protests. What would they do?
I know that some of them are real Russian military – moving out to our meetings like ordinary Sevastopol people. But they are not ordinary people. Pretending that they are Sevastopol people, they say that they don’t want Maidan here in Sevastopol. They push us, making noises, and after I spoke to the head officer, I was punished. I was beaten.About the spies – these spies are and were in the Sevastopol institutions like Sevastopol administration, Sevastopol council, Sevastopol police, Sevastopol SBU (which is the equivalent of the FSB in Russia) and we have the proof. The proof is that all these institutes now say, “We are not Ukrainian institutions. Now we are Sevastopol institutions. We [are] supporting Russian aggression.”These institutions are working not for Yanukovych, but for Russia. We know that Yanukovych is in Russia.
Annoncering
I went there to ask several questions. I saw the deputy of the former Sevastopol governor and asked him, "Do they plan to separate Sevastopol from Ukraine?" When I asked him, the crowd, which was big, they saw me. They knew who I was [a Maidan activist]. They had previously come to our meetings and made provocations there, so they knew who I was.And they started to punch me, so I tried to protect myself, but there were too many people – ten or 20 from different sides, different angles. It was hard for me to protect myself, so I got several punches in the head, fell down and, for a few seconds, lost consciousness. One policeman helped me to stand up and called an ambulance. The ambulance took me to the hospital.I'd never met anyone up against so much opposition. You had 100 some people in your movement who were willing to speak up publicly, but this in a city of 350,000. What did you expect to actually achieve?
Yes, you can see that if we had 100 activists out of 350,000 people, it meant that it was dangerous to hold public meetings. But as I said before, we have many more people supporting Maidan ideas, but they are scared. They don’t want to be in public, because they have businesses or they work for the government. So that’s why not all of them go out on the streets.
Annoncering
We had several effects – good effects and bad effects. The bad effect was that our movement mobilised the pro-Russians. If we didn’t show up in Sevastopol, this Russian movement wouldn’t be so big as it is now. So we mobilised it. It’s not a good achievement.The good is that we showed our position. We showed our faces publicly. And we said that Sevastopol is a real Ukrainian city. Yes, we understand that most people support Russia. But we have the law; we have Ukrainian territory here.Once the Russians took control of the peninsula, you left for Kiev. You were telling me on Facebook that you couldn't get out by road and were going to try leaving by train. How'd you eventually arrive in the capital? What made you leave?
I arrived by train without any big issues. If you’re moving out of Crimea, it’s much easier to move out than to move in. So, when I moved out, it was maybe a week ago, and there weren’t any issues taking the train.
Annoncering
Nobody said they were going to kill me, but some people said they would cut me with a knife. But on the streets, people were negative to me. They said, “You’re not a good guy. Leave Sevastopol. You’ll get many more punches.”How did you eventually make it back to Sevastopol?
I made it by train, though now we have pro-Russian self-defence forces that are controlling the train station. I asked the people who were running the train to hide me for an hour or so. So I hid in a train compartment for 40 minutes, and then these people from self-defence left and I went out. I waited for them.That sounds risky.
I took some risks. And now I’m not in my flat. I’m hiding at my friend’s place with some safety, I hope. I didn’t attend some public meetings after Crimea was occupied, so I hope these Russian guys aren't thinking too much about me now.What do you expect they would do if they found you?
First of all, they know my face. They know my name. There have been examples of activists who were caught and the Russian guys took them out of the city to the woods. Some were beaten, some not. They left them there. So the Russians take some steps to make them scared.
Annoncering
People here in Crimea are basically Russian. We also have Tatars, but Russians are the majority. Russians have roots in the Russia Federation. Now some of them have families there, so they're connected to Russia. They support Russian and Kremlin policies.Politicians and officials here aren't working for the people, but for the corruption – how to make the corrupt money. So people see that Ukrainians here are not helping them. They don’t feel the real support of Ukraine for them. That’s why people don’t love Ukraine.But also they don’t feel the Russian support. At the same time, they see that Russia is a big country, and they have roots in Russia. And Russian soldiers here have big wages; they spend their money here in Sevastopol. They support the Sevastopol economy. So people see that Russia is much more part of Crimea than Ukraine.
Annoncering
About RT – you know this is the propaganda tool of the Kremlin. I know that Mr Putin and the Kremlin spent money on Western journalists. They give them money and say, “You need to make some articles that are good for us.” So it’s not strange that some Western journalists write articles for the Kremlin for money and say that Maidan is nationalistic, extremist, etc.I recognise that in Maidan we've had some situations [involving] extremist topics. But it’s a minority. It’s a real minority. The majority of Maidan are good people. They love Russians, Ukrainians – they love all nations.Do you expect the referendum results to show that Crimeans want to rejoin Russia?
Yes, because none of the Ukrainian channels are working in Crimea. Here in Crimea, we have only Russian channels. You can’t watch any Ukrainian channels, except over the internet. And these Russian channels say that Crimea should come to Russia.We also have propaganda here. We have a propaganda war in the papers. We have stickers on the streets that say "Vote for Russian Crimea". So we have propaganda here, and we have another mindset because Russian soldiers, with Russian guns, didn’t give the opportunity to people who represent another view to make our propaganda and say what we want to say.Here, for us, it’s dangerous to hold public meetings. So we haven’t got any public opportunities to say what we’re thinking about.This article was published after confirmation that Viktor had safely returned to Kiev.