MEMBERS of the National Bolshevik Party march against the war in Iraq.
MEMBERS of the National Bolshevik Party march against the war in Iraq. [photo: AP]
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Christopher Kenneth / TRJ 8 Apr 2003
Increasing numbers of Russians are moving from hostile rhetoric to aggressive action in expressing their opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Mass demonstrations like those seen in other capitals around the world have yet to happen in Moscow, but feeling is growing against America and its allies as the battle to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein intensifies.
A survey for NTV's Basic Instinct program found 36 percent of Russians are thinking of boycotting U.S. products, while a poll by the Public Opinion Foundation found 73 percent of people now feel strong dislike for U.S. President George W. Bush.
The Kremlin added to the growing feeling, observers say, when it revealed it had received 6,000 letters from Russia and abroad expressing firm support for its anti-war stance.
Security officials at embassies of countries in the so-called coalition against Saddam said they did not yet fear violent demonstrations of the kind seen during NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, although all said they had beefed-up precautions.
But Russia's army reservists, businesspeople, students and workers are becoming more vocal in their protests.
Maria Ivanova, a 40-year-old sociology professor at a Moscow university, said at an anti-war rally in Moscow on Saturday that she regretted taking flowers to the U.S. Embassy after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"It's utterly despicable to launch such a meaningless war in the 21st century," she said. "It is even more unpalatable that the warmongers this time are not the traditional politically unstable rogue states in the Third World, but the United States and Britain - which were seen as bastions of modern democracy, the rule of law, justice and observance of international norms."
Echoing the views of many other Russians at the rally, Pyotr, a history student and member of the ATTACK anti-globalization movement, said that in invading Iraq the United States had simply looked for an excuse to gain access to Iraqi oil.
"The Iraqis do not need democracy at any cost," he said. "At least not the type brought by Tomahawk bombs and Apache helicopters. Saying they were doing this because they needed the oil would have been much fairer to the international community and the Iraqi people."
Peaceful rhetoric is fast giving way to more aggressive words in some places. One group of students gathered outside a supermarket in Vladivostok recently, telling shoppers they were accomplices to war crimes if they bought U.S. products. At a rally in central Russia, students tore up dollar bills as they told passers by to boycott Coca-Cola.
In a development that some observers see as more worrying, major television channels have featured young men and women from military backgrounds vowing to travel to Iraq to help oust coalition forces.
Dr. Abbas Khalaf, Iraqi ambassador to Russia, has claimed Russians are making formal visa applications. He said more than 2,500 applications are being processed at the embassy in Moscow, with more coming in every day.
Some have already taken direct action, targeting U.S. and British citizens directly. One restaurant in Rostov Oblast, about 1,300 km south of Moscow, struck off all dishes associated with the United States and only dropped a ban on serving American and British customers after media attention. The establishment now says it will only refuse to serve Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
It's not only ordinary Russians who are angry at the war, however. Entrepreneur Vladimir Semago has filed a legal suit against Bush in a Moscow court, claiming $19 million for damages to his company's contract with an Iraqi business.
Semago is one of several Russian businesspeople in the private sector - with total interests of between $8 billion and $10 billion - to claim they would lose out from a change of regime in Iraq. The government itself is worried about the $8 billion in Soviet-era debt that Iraq still owes Moscow.
Semago told reporters in March that his contract was signed in accordance with UN and other international requirements on doing business in Iraq. "In my opinion, President Bush bears the sole responsibility for the negative trends, and it's my aim to seek justice anywhere, starting from Russian courts," he said.