In the late 1980s, Vitaly Skoybeda was a member of the Democratic Union. In 1990–1993 he was a deputy of the democratic Leningrad City Council. After that, he remained an activist in the Russian democratic movement for another ten years. In 2004, under persecution by the authorities, he was forced to move to Georgia. He joined the movement of supporters of Mikheil Saakashvili, and participated in clashes with pro-imperial “titushki”. He strongly supported the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity. When a full-scale war began in 2022, I came to Ukraine and joined the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps of the Right Sector. I spent several months at the front. A member of the Executive Council of the Congress of People’s Deputies. Today Vitaly Valerievich talks with ABN.
– Putin’s war against Ukraine has “reset” a lot. Over the decade of the “hybrid” invasion, and even more so over the two front-line years. But still. You, a long-term activist of the democratic movement, can answer from your own experience: why was it not possible to transform Russia into a free and peace-loving country, as dreamed of a third of a century ago? Why did the totalitarian-imperial forces gain the upper hand again?
– You may be a little surprised by what I say. I am well acquainted with the “democracy movement activists” in Russia. I am friends with many to this day. But I don’t like it when I am included in a certain generalized circle of “democratic movement activists.” Like in an entomologist’s collection, pinned between the beetles from SPS and the worms from “Yabloko”; on the left is Shenderovich, on the right is some Sobol… No, I’m not in this album.
When I was asked about my political affiliation back in the nineties, I had to briefly formulate: “I’m not a democrat, I’m an anti-communist.” Now I ask you not to confuse me with the herd of pink ponies. I am an anti-communist, anti-Soviet, anti-Putinist, anti-racist. Individualist, right-wing libertarian, republican, classical liberal. Democracy for me is a tool, not an end in itself. I have a normal attitude towards Pinochet and Franco, those who stopped the red plague of Bolshevism by force. And I’m not at all opposed to treating the ills of today’s democracy. New electoral qualifications. Not the most democratic of transition periods – from totalitarian dictatorships to normal human life. I believe that the Russian Federation is facing severe denazification and demilitarization. The self-proclaimed “Third Rome” will receive the same thing that the “Third Reich” received in its time.
After this short introduction, it is easier to answer the question. The transformations in Russia failed because the totalitarian-imperial forces were not thoroughly cleansed. No lustration, no real trial of the CPSU and the KGB. The criminals escaped punishment. The Russian Federation was declared the “legal successor of the USSR.” The washed pig immediately fell into the bloody imperial mud. “Proxy wars” in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria, assistance to the “brotherly” Cuban dictatorship and the bloody Milosevic, the first attempts towards the Tuzla Spit, the first neo-imperial war in Chechnya. All this happened during the Yeltsin period, during the times of “activists of the democratic movement.” Some, however, objected but tried not to rock the boat too much. We see the results today.
– Instead of transforming Russian statehood, was it necessary to destroy it? If so, what forces inside Russia are capable of this now?
– My opinion: it is impossible to reformat the Russian Federation into a normal peaceful country of the civilized world on its current territory. A huge expanse, very different regions, peoples, religions, cultures and economic landmarks. It is possible to keep it within common borders only through the most brutal dictatorship, violence within and aggression without. Hence the Moscow-centricity, the bloated security apparatus, the obscurantist ideology, and the “unifying” propaganda. Tyranny, slavery, servility. Paranoia of general suspicion and search for enemies.
Breaking the vicious circle is only possible through Russia’s transition to the Confederation format. Or better still, through division into several independent states. With full national self-determination. Including the self-determination of Russians, who in the Russian Federation occupied by security officers are completely deprived of ethnic subjectivity and national statehood and are used as building material and cannon fodder for the empire.
National liberation movements, including the healthy forces of Russian nationalists, are capable of making this historical turn. The vanguard of the Russian national movement today is the Russian Volunteer Corps.
– The anti-imperial struggle of peoples turned into a direct military confrontation. Ukraine is capable of defending itself and returning to occupied lands. But what next? How will the “Kremlin beast” be curbed – from the outside or the inside? Will Russian volunteer formations and the partisan movement do this? What can you say about this, taking into account your personal experience of armed struggle?
– It is possible to curb the Kremlin beast through the efforts of the entire civilized world. This is a fighting Ukraine and the Ramstein coalition, and countries directly bordering the Russian Federation and an awakened Europe… A crazy putler with a nuclear club is banging on all the doors – it’s time to open the abscess.
In Russia, naturally, there are normal people. But the norm is not only understanding (many understand, but only a few do something). The norm is resistance. It gives rise to Russian volunteer battalions at the front, all types of support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the partisan movement and the fighting underground.
If we talk about my service in the DUK PS… Ukrainians, Georgians, Russians, Belarusians – together against Putin’s fascist dictatorship. Sister fighters, the International Legion from dozens of countries around the world. The vibrant diversity of cultures, mutual respect and mutual support in a single cause – to stop and defeat the common mortal enemy. This is an excellent model for future relations between neighbouring countries. Respecting each other and being friendly to each other.
– You are a participant in the Russian Congress of People’s Deputies. Tell us briefly about the place of the SND in the general military-political struggle. What is already being done, what is planned? Does the SND interact with Russian volunteers and partisans? What methods of struggle against Putin’s totalitarian empire do you consider most effective now?
– As a delegate of the SND and a member of the Executive Council, I participate in the development of laws for the transition period. These acts are intended to be introduced in Russian territories liberated from the Putin regime. The SND has established constructive interaction with the Freedom of Russia Legion.
–The Russian political emigration has created several centres: Vilnius, Berlin, Prague… Why did you choose Warsaw – SND? What are its advantages?
– I see the advantage of the SND in comparison with other platforms precisely in the fact that the Congress is the first – and so far the only opposition association – to cooperate with the military resistance. I am convinced: that after 24 February 2022, all non-violent forms have exhausted themselves. There was no one to turn to for peaceful (and meek) protest. Chekist punishers and executioners understand only force, only fire and steel. The liberation of Russia is the military defeat of Putin’s Russian Federation. Soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russian volunteer front-line soldiers, partisans and underground fighters.
– The situation in the Russian Federation is becoming tougher and darker. As we see, the ruling regime is no longer relying on selective repression, but on open terror. After 22 March the situation seems to have changed dramatically.
– I assess the tragedy in Crocus as a joint effort of two forces of transcendental evil, Putin’s security forces and ISIS. They, as they say, found each other. Bosom enemies, sworn friends. Welded together by atrocities in Syria, and now in Russia.
It is difficult to judge yet whether this was a coordinated action or the use of some by others. The second one is more likely. One way or another, the result is well known. Where at least one of these forces appears, blood, suffering, and sacrifices are inevitable. And if both coincide…
It is quite obvious: the Putinists needed something dirty and bloody to blame Ukraine. Even though Ukraine, even in the third year of a terrible war, does not hit civilian targets or the civilian population. Russian volunteers warn residents of the Belgorod and Kursk regions in advance: leave the combat zone or find shelter. The Kremlin aggressor is demolishing peaceful cities and bombing his own villages. And they put the bursting owl of ISIS on the globe of their anti-Ukrainianism.
Maybe that was the plan originally. But something went wrong.
The war has entered a difficult and viscous phase. The path to a turning point is the maximum transfer of military operations to the territory of the Russian Federation. Now they are hitting Odesa, Kharkiv and Kyiv – let them fight back in Belgorod, Samara and Moscow. Ukrainian drones and missiles – at military bases and refineries. Entries of Russian liberation forces into border regions. Guerrilla attacks from within, along the entire length of the military transport and energy infrastructure of the Russian Federation. The current raids by LSR, RDK, and the Siberian battalion not only draw back the enemy forces but also signal the possibility of an armed struggle against the regime. This is important for those who are ready to join.
– You know that the traditional Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations has been recreated as the Anti-imperial Block of Nations – ABN Front. The ideological and organizational centre is in fact based in Ukraine. But ABN cells operate in both Georgia and Russia… Can you imagine ways and methods of concrete cooperation?
– I would say: that I see the future Commonwealth of the Victors of Mordor. As for the specifics, it has already been said above about the volunteer combat formation as a model of relations between our countries and organizations. The liberal understands the importance of national statehood and is ready to cooperate with nationalists.
Yes, I really like the idea of the Intermarium. A single Eastern European space from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Organized according to the principles of freedom and solidarity. But this is a separate special topic. For the future, which we must live to see. And to survive, to win.
Interviewed by Roman Anti
