“Civilians need a good kick in the *ss”. Viktor Trehubov on the Democratic Ax, mobilization and excuses for citizens

Who created the Democratic Axe and why?

We created Democratic Ax in 2018. There was a group of people who were involved in political life in one way or another but as political consultants, journalists, and observers who had their own right-wing liberal agenda. After the Party of Regionswhite and blue were chased away and the nation mobilized, there was a certain uplift. There were certain hopes that things would get better and that it would be possible to take some initiatives with the government of the day.

But at some point, it became clear that between, relatively speaking, progress and pensioners, the authorities were choosing pensioners as the most active electorate. So it was something like that: everything is great, guys, but let's not talk about your medical cannabis, we know it's needed, but the people are not ready.

Every time I hear that people are not ready, I know that I am being deceived. This means that it is not the people who are not ready, but the government that is not ready for political risk. People are usually ready.

And when we saw that the current government was slowly drifting in its election boat toward the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, we decided that if you want to change something, it's not enough to just be a blogger, commentator, or advisor. You need to have your own subjectivity. The only way to have your own subjectivity is to create your own political force with your own ideology and to make your own electoral bet, for example, that there are at least enough people who share your views to change something in the country. And that's exactly what we did.

We were accused of being paid off. This is a favorite Ukrainian saying. But then tell me who paid us, so that we can be clear. Because we were accused of working for Poroshenko, or for Zelenskyy's office, or both. The irony is that even if I was paid, I was probably paid very cheaply. Because then why do I have one car in my family and it's not a new one? And what am I doing in the army if I am like that?

I was creating a party that I could vote for myself. There were no such parties, so we had such an ambition.

Now the party's political activity has been officially suspended in accordance with Ukrainian law, which for some reason is highly ignored by other parties. We stopped our political activities from the beginning of the declaration of martial law. All party structures turned into volunteer organizations. But the party could not physically continue its activities, because everyone went to the front. If you take the executive committee, for example, 5 out of 5 went to the front. If you take the political council, there were 15 people there — I think 8 of them joined the army. The party's economic structures work as volunteer headquarters, and they have really good results, even in the country.

Are chaplains needed in the Armed Forces?

I think they are needed. First, objectively, in a war of such intensity, people have spiritual needs. And this is important. In Ukraine, there are a large number of religious people, and their spiritual needs are exacerbated in such existential moments. And this is absolutely normal, it happens to everyone. It really helps people to keep themselves in an adequate psychological state. It helps to fight, helps to rehabilitate. Therefore, it objectively improves combat capability.

Those who say that this is brainwashing should not use the services of chaplains. Not everything in the army should be for everyone. The army has different sizes of boots, for example.

Mobilization and “excuses”

As an active serviceman, it is difficult for me to comment on mobilization initiatives, but let's try to say it in a tolerant way. If we are talking about the lack of responsibility, this is a global problem now, we can see it in the experience of other countries. It's just that we used to have social Darwinism: you don't want to, you have to. No one asked if you wanted to go to war or not. If you don't want to work, lay down and die of hunger, if you don't want to fight, the occupier will come and smash your head.

And now people are used to someone owing them something. The state is to blame, social programs are to blame. And they believe they have the right to do nothing, the right to have no responsibilities. This is a global phenomenon. And in Ukraine, this is multiplied by a great fear.

It seems to me that everyone understands everything. But when a person is stopped on the road, they start shouting: why did you stop me and not somebody else? They know they have violated the law, they just want to avoid responsibility. It's the same situation when a person starts saying: let Poroshenko's son fight, let Zelenskyy's son fight, even though Zelenskyy seems to have daughters. Nevertheless.

We need to understand that there is no way to fix these excuses. We just have to ignore them. In my sincere opinion, we have only one goal: survival. Survival of identity, of the state, and purely physical survival. I am convinced, for example, that if the Russians take Kyiv, relatively speaking, they will simply kill us. We saw what happened in the Kyiv region. Therefore, it is a matter of survival.

The right to life is higher than other rights because if you don't have it, you can't realize other rights. Therefore, in this situation, we must first ensure the physical survival of Ukraine and Ukrainians. And listening to excuses is unnecessary. Discussing is unnecessary in this situation. Because you are saving these same people. They don't want to go to the front now, they can't. And then they will be killed if you don't give them a good kick in the *ss, give them weapons, and tell them where their sector is.

Why doesn't the government communicate this with citizens? I am absolutely convinced that, like many initiatives, we will do this, but with a delay. The inertia of the system. The government believes that it will be able to “sneak through” until the last minute, but then the storm hits, and the government realizes that we are not going to “sneak through” and gives the go-ahead. This is a standard story for Ukraine in any historical period because this is how the system works.

Peculiarities of Russian and Belarusian protests

There is a good joke: “You should see me in a fight and the way my *ss gets kicked!”. This is about the Russian opposition. They have a victimized approach to protest. Their ability to protest is assessed not by how many cops you beat up, but by how many cops beat you up, how much they got degraded, and how hard they threw you into the police car. They really see this as civic courage. That is, they see civic courage as going out and getting kicked. Ours is a little different.

It is impossible to raise non-violent resistance against outright cannibals. Those who think it is possible should study the history of the Moriori people. It does not work well. The Moriori people were exterminated.

A non-violent revolt is impossible in Russia and Belarus because there are cannibals at all levels. A violent one is possible, but the opposition in both Russia and Belarus is not ready for it. In Belarus, I think, it is like that because of stupidity, although there was potential. In Russia, it's because they're just used to being degraded. It was funny when people wrote in online communities after Navalny's funeral that there were people who tried to attack the police, but they didn't fall for it. Well done.

What awaits us after the war

We had a demo version sometime in 2017-2018 when active hostilities subsided and a certain number of people returned. At that time, there were post-traumatic disorders, and some people got drunk, and some people went into some kind of semi-criminal activity. And then there were bus drivers who said: I didn't send you there. At the end of the route, these bus drivers were met by about 16-30 very impolite people who explained him everything. Most likely, it will be the same, but on a scale of x10.

But we can't really imagine, because we don't know what state the whole society will be in, what state Ukraine will be in. It's one thing if we burn Moscow, it's another thing if there is another freeze and we can't reach the 1991 border. Although I am working exclusively to reach the 1991 borders. I don't even need to burn Moscow.

I don't really believe in the breakup of Russia into small national republics, but I do believe in the breakup of Russia along economic and administrative lines. Relatively speaking, Primorye can afford to be separated. At some points, if it concerns the North Caucasus, national movements are possible there. But that's not even the point.

I am simply convinced that when we reach the 1991 border, such irreversible processes will begin in Russia that they will not have time for us. I think that processes will start in Russia that will take it out of the game as an aggressor for at least two generations. No, it will not start falling apart instantly. There will be a power struggle, some people will start killing other people, and Putin will eventually die, he has to die, he is old and weak. People who do not want their entire clan to be exterminated in case of defeat will start killing each other. I'm not sure that even Ukrainian corn production will give us enough popcorn to watch all this.