“Russians, don’t be afraid to drive?”, or How we got to a Ukrainian taxi driver in Europe – Society – Saint-Petersburg News
“Fontanka” tells how Russians are now treated in Europe, whether “Russophobia” is blooming, whether it is necessary to hide a passport, and what questions you can face when you hit a Ukrainian taxi driver.
“From Petersburg? Wow, first time meeting Russians here. I’m from Ukraine,” the taxi driver Artem is surprised in Gdansk. Our driver moved to Poland with the onset of the pandemic and did not catch the streams of Kaliningraders who came here for shopping, recreation and cheap flights, like Petersburgers to Finland. 25 minutes to the airport, the conversation will be long.
This is the second part of the journey outside of Russia during the special operations. The first one, about 11 hours in a bus with Ukrainian refugees, is here.
The taxi driver Artem has an economic education. He managed to work in Poland, according to him, on two part-time jobs, which eventually burned down in a taxi. Wrapped up more than 2000 orders. He says that the money is not great, but better than in Ukraine. For example, for the way to the airport from the city center, we pay PLN 66 in cash – about 1000 rubles. 25% is taken by Uber. Therefore, at the beginning of the trip, it is required to cancel the order in order not to make a commission to the aggregator – “gasoline has risen in price”.
“Russians, aren’t you afraid to go to Europe now? Is it true that in Russia everyone believes TV? Doesn’t anyone know the truth? Do you read Ukrainian news?” he asks a series of rhetorical questions.
In response, I explain that receiving information and interpreting it are two different processes. That some St. Petersburg residents pay Ukrainian refugees on their way to Europe, while others for debt on pacifist actions. I also remember how my grandmother a week ago begged me not to go to “this Europe, where there is only Russophobia.”
“Yes, the Poles treat everyone with arrogance,” Artem agrees. – They told me once: “And you took Lviv from us.” Remembered! I answered him that “neither you nor I participated in this. Why are you complaining to me?”
At the same time, according to the taxi driver, after the start of the special operation, his mother and sister are currently living with him, who are returning to Ukraine, do not plan and are not looking for work in Poland.
Already at the entrance to the airport we are discussing Belarus – “they admit everything”, “terrible confessions”, the consequences of which are not yet felt among the Russians. At the end, we say goodbye. No conflict happened.
By the way, a Ukrainian taxi driver also brought from the airport to the city. Sergey picked us up in a Skoda with one headlight on and was laconic.
“Russians? AIs, probably. It’s a difficult time right now,” was all he said in the whole story.
In a week and a half we covered most of Europe. From Tallinn to Berlin, from Oslo to Milan. Five flights, two buses. Red passports were not hidden, but they were needed only in hotels and on flights. No side effects from Russian citizenship.
At the Gdansk airport, an employee, seeing my red book for registration, asked a colleague, “should Russian men be sent for verification.” And I got a clear answer: “No, do nothing.”
In a large chain hotel near Alexanderplatz in Berlin, we were settled by a girl with the name Sasha and the ending of her last name with “-enko”. She spoke only German and English, without switching to Russian. But the room was excellent, with a view. But in Milan, the receptionist, clearly an Italian, immediately switched to the great and powerful. And although the words “floor” and “room” are regularly confused, I honestly tried to find answers to all questions.
In the house on Lake Como, in the room where the Italian boarders rented to us, televisions with European news were constantly on. In them, it seems, the only topic was Ukraine. But at the breakfast, which the hosts personally prepared every morning for the guests, they revolved about how they visited St. Petersburg 10 years ago, how magnificent the Hermitage is, and that the death of people is terrible. They themselves still cannot come to terms with the death of their son, who took the covid in the first wave.
In the towns in the center of Lake Como, Russian is spoken as often as French and English. Not to mention Poland or Germany.
Despite the fact that Ukrainian flags are flying over buildings all over Europe, hardly anyone can fly just because they are Russian. And if you don’t wave the tricolor and don’t decorate yourself with symbols of special operations, then Russians cannot be distinguished from Ukrainians, and relations are more than benevolent. They are provided with free travel, housing, assistance with employment and bureaucracy.
And on the case of excesses on cases in some European countries of direct income application in the local language, which not all Russians take.
For information on how Ukrainian refugees get to the city on the Neva and what kind of assistance they receive from St. Petersburg residents, see here. And about how the refugees who came to the Leningrad region from Mariupol live and what they remember, you can read in detail in the Fontanka report.
Ilya Kazakov, Fontanka