As the head of the Euromaidan movement in the Crimean city of Sevastopol, Ukraine, Viktor Neganov led about 100 Ukrainians in his hometown to call for an end to corruption. At one protest, a crowd of pro-Russian “provocateurs” confronted the activists. They attacked Viktor, knocking him down and giving him a concussion.
Once the Russian troops took control of the peninsula, Viktor escaped to Kiev after his life was threatened. He snuck back to his hometown of Sevastopol this week, despite pro-Russian militias controlling the train and bus stations. I spoke with him via Skype while he was in hiding. He told me about his experience on the run and what he thinks is next for Crimea.
VICE: Why don’t you start by telling me how you got into activism and how you ended up running the Euromaidan movement?
Viktor Neganov:I started because of the regime of [former Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovych and because of the loss of the lives when Yanukovych was the president. Many people, they died to live in this political and economic system when the corruption is ahead of [everything]. I, like other activists, [was] coming out to the streets and started 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 in Sevastopol. What would they do?
I know that some of them they 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 FSB in Russia)—and we have the proof. The proof is that all these institutes now say that, “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.
Yanukovych was probably a spy also. [laughs]
You were also attacked when the Berkut [Ukraine’s elite riot police] came to Crimea from Kiev. You suffered a concussion. You got a bloody nose. Tell me about what had happened to you.
I went there to ask several questions. I [saw] the deputy of the former Sevastopol governor. … I 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 am (which is a Maidan activist). They [previously] came to our meetings and made provocations against our meetings so they know who I am.
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—so it was hard for me to protect myself so I get several punches in the head, fell down, for a few seconds I [lost consciousness]. One policeman helped me to stand up and call to the 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 could see that if we had 100 activists [out of] 350,000 people, it means that it’s dangerous to hold public meetings. But, as I said before, we have much more people supporting Maidan ideas, but they are scared. They don’t want to be in public because they have business or they work for the government. So that’s why not all of them go out on the streets.
And about 20 percent of the voters in the elections of the Ukrainian parliament in 2012, they voted for the opposition parties [in Crimea]. And these parties support Maidan. But not too much [people] move out [to protest].
What I expected to achieve: to show the world, to show Ukraine that [in] Sevastopol and also Crimea, we have people [who] support Maidan ideas, which means that this is not just Russian territory. This is Ukrainian territory. We have Ukrainian activists who support the Ukrainian ideas, the Ukrainian territory.
What effect did your movement have in Crimea?
We had several effects. We have good effects and bad effects. Bad effects that our movement mobilized the pro-Russian. If we didn’t show [up] in Sevastopol, this Russian movement wouldn’t be so big as it is now. So we mobilized 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 of people, they support Russia. But, we have the law; we have the Ukrainian territory here.
Once the Russians took control of the peninsula, you left to 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] issues for moving out by train.
I left because of the dangerous situation. I was beaten before. I got many messages by phone or by internet, social network, that my life was in danger, that some people wanted to punish me. Saying that, after I was beaten up, that “We could do much more to you.”
Did they threaten to kill you?
Personally nobody says they are going to kill me. But I saw these messages through the social networks. Some people said they would cut me by 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?
Yes, I made it by train and when I moved to Sevastopol, now we have such [pro-Russian self-defense forces] that are controlling the train station. I asked to the people who are 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-defense, they left and I went out. I [waited] for them.
That sounds risky.
I took some risk. And now I’m not in my flat. I’m hiding at my friend’s place with some safety, I hope. You know that I didn’t [attend] some public meetings after Crimea was occupied, so I hope these Russian guys are not 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 when activists who were caught and the Russian guys took them out of the city to the woods. Some of them were beaten, some not. They left them there. So they take some steps to make them scared.
But you don’t know what happens next time.
For now they are not killing, just kidnapping people, for several days. But, tomorrow things could be changed. They could do other things. So there’s no sense to take that risk. So I try to protect myself.
I remember I was interviewing local people walking along the main boardwalk in Sevastopol and they all said basically the same thing: "Euromaidan activists are extremists and criminals. We feel closer to Russia. We have no interest in activism coming to Sevastopol." You weren't really surprised and said it was part of an information war. Tell me more about that.
People here in Crimea they’re basically Russian. We have also Tatars but Russians are the majority. Russians have roots in Russia Federation. Now some of them have families there so they connect with Russia. So they support Russian and Kremlin steps.
Politicians, officials here are not working for the people here but for the corruption, how to get 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. But they see that Russia is a big country, they have roots in Russia. Also Russian soldiers here, they have big wages, they spend their money here in Sevastopol. They support Sevastopol economy. So people see that Russia is much more part [of Crimea] than Ukraine.
Many of the people they look at Russian television, the propaganda Goebbels-style. Lying, lying, lying. When people look at Russian TV saying that on Maidan we have criminals, we have Nazis, we have extremists, we have provocateurs, we have some people with psychosis, etc.
People couldn’t check it. I know some of my friends they support Russia. They weren’t at Maidan. They don’t really know what was happening there but they were watching Russian television. Russian television is saying that people there are bad people. But every time I say, you should go to Maidan to check and see what is happening there.
Aside from Russian media like RT, there are also Western columnists, pundits and academics in New York and DC who also characterize Euromaidan as a nationalist, extremist, homophobic, anti-Semitic movement that ousted Yanukovych in what they call a coup. Your thoughts?
About RT, you know this is the propaganda tool of the Kremlin. I know that Mr. Putin, they spent money for Western journalists. They give money and [say], “You need to make some article 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 want to recognize that in Maidan we have some situations with some kind of extremist topic. But it’s a minority. It’s a real minority. The majority of Maidan are good people. They love Russians, Ukrainians, love all nations.
Do you expect the referendum results to show that Crimeans want to rejoin Russia?
Yes, because all the Ukrainian channels in Crimea, they are not working. Here in Crimea, we have only Russian channels. You can’t see any Ukrainian channels, only by internet. And these Russian channels, they say about the referendum that Crimea should come to Russia.
Also we 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 the propaganda here and we have another mind because Russian soldiers with Russian guns, they didn’t give opportunity for us, for people [who] represent another [view] to make our propaganda to say what we want to say.
Here, for us, it’s dangerous to make 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.