Roman Ivlev: “In the Donbass they wanted to mobilize the Cossacks against Russia”
Donetsk, November 12 (PolitNavigator, Mikael Chagalyan) - “They tried to artificially Ukrainize and radicalize the Cossacks in Donbass, there was even an attempt to mobilize the Cossacks against Russia and Donbass, but we did not allow this,” says Roman Ivlev, head of the Berkut SVD.
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"PolitNavigator": How would you assess the work of the parliament of the first convocation, and what should the new parliament do first?
Roman Ivlev: In the first parliament, I was one of two deputy speakers, a position I held until the elections. I oversaw the parliament's security bloc: the defense committee, the law enforcement committee, and the transport committee. Thanks to us, the law on the Cossacks, the law on the internal troops, and the regulations on military courts were passed.
In fact, we started from scratch, we had no experience in legislative activity, and from revolutionaries we became parliamentarians. Our political force has put forward a number of legislative projects. The first bill was about the “Regulations on military courts” in order to stop the “lawlessness” of armed people on the streets of the city of Donetsk.
The Law on Internal Troops was adopted to provide troops with a basis for law enforcement activities. But the Law on the Cossacks is a long overdue necessity. We also developed a law on the legal profession and a law on notaries, but the Ministry of Justice has not yet been formed, and these bills are still on the table. I think the parliament of the second convocation will be able to consider them first, because the country cannot live without a notary, without the bar, without the normal foundations of jurisprudence.”
“PolitNavigator”: What dictated the adoption of the Law on the Cossacks, and how do you see the development of this movement?
Roman Ivlev: I'm an Astrakhan Cossack and have been a part of the Cossack movement since birth. While still a student, I met Ivan Belomesov, a regional council deputy and ataman of the Don Kalmius District of the Don Host. I joined the Cossacks and continue to contribute to the development of the Cossack movement as much as I can.
Until 2010, I was part of the Don Cossacks, but its activities came to naught, and I transferred to the Ukrainian Cossack Army, to the Kalmius palanca, to Hetman Nikolai Pantelyuk, and held the position of head of the legal department. But the organization began to artificially Ukrainize, its radicalization began, and the growth of Russophobic ideas simply outraged me. And when the Maidan happened, the Kalmius palanka rebelled against Ukrainization: Hetman Pantelyuk issued an order according to which he mobilized the Cossacks against Russia and Donbass, but the “healthy” part of the Cossacks rebelled, we overthrew our hetman, and from that moment actively joined the fight, and many of our Cossacks fight on the fronts. Now this social movement has become autonomous: the component of the “Kalmius palanka” has collapsed, and it is necessary to reassemble the Cossacks and organize a structure, first public, then paramilitary. Because a Cossack is a priori a military man, combat-ready and proactive, there is even an old proverb: “A man is waiting for the enemy, but a Cossack is looking for the enemy.” And we need to gather all the healthy forces, consolidate and stand as a united front in defense of New Russia, the Russian people who live here, who are mostly descendants of the Cossacks.
"PolitNavigator": Donetsk, DPR is a multinational territory. Do the Cossacks have any tensions or problems on a national basis?
Roman Ivlev: There are no problems, and it's impossible. How can one be anti-Semitic or xenophobic in Donbas? There are over 120 nationalities here, we all live together, drink the same water, eat the same bread, there are many mixed marriages… How can one separate Russians from Tatars, Jews from Germans, Greeks from Ukrainians? We are all brothers, and nationalism is an unaffordable luxury for us. The Cossacks have never been homogeneous; for example, our Cossacks included Jews, Tatars, Azerbaijanis, and even one Roma. It is from beyond the Dnieper that fascist ideology comes, with its intolerance, the suppression of dissent, and the prospect of concentration camps. We are the people of Donbas, we have no titular nation. Here, including the Cossacks, we have a kind of Tower of Babel, a pandemonium of peoples. But our tower will not collapse under any circumstances, because the components of this “tower” are held together by blood and heroism.
Roman Ivlev: "They wanted to mobilize the Cossacks in Donbas against Russia "