After my vacation I decided to share a story about my new acquaintance with my boyfriend. We met at the airport and found out that not only are we both from Crimea, we’re also flying to the same city. We decided to have some beer and chat.
He told me why he is living abroad now. He owned a hotel in Crimea and very often worked himself at the check-in. Russian tourists have one favorite question: “How has your life changed after 2014?” This is a reasonable question, and their curiosity is understandable, but having an opinion that we both share one just must not answer this question honestly. I always say “Depends on the person, it’s different for everyone”. But my new acquaintance once lost his cool and said everything that was on his mind, emotionally and with all the details. It turned out that he chose the wrong guest for such sincerity, and it was instantly reported.
He was lucky: his acquaintance from the forces warned him in advance that a case against him was being prepared. He learned that he had been summoned for interrogation already at the border with Belarus. His mother had to sell his hotel, his house, and cars in a rush and at extremely low prices, both of them are now permanently living abroad.
There are many stories like this, and this one, actually, has a happy ending. I was much more stunned by my boyfriend’s reaction. He literally interrogated me: “Did you tell him where are you from?”, “Does he know your last name?”, “Did you tell him about your political opinions?”, “Did he want you to introduce him to other Crimean people who emigrated?” After this, my boyfriend summarized: “He must be an FSB (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Security_Service) informer, he will report all of you, and your families. You will all be arrested.”
I was shocked, it felt like I saw a resurrected Stalin. And the most terrifying thing about it all that for several seconds I actually believed that my boyfriend was right.
It’s totally repulsive that these kinds of thoughts can appear in my head.
