Residents of Lvov mock the “Muscovites” and expect only taxes from them
Lvov, December 04 (PolitNavigator, Victoria Litovchenko) – Consul General of Russia in Lvov Oleg Astakhov believes that local authorities and residents are indifferent to the problems, wishes and needs of Russians, although they sometimes live in the city for decades.
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"Do you feel that 100,000 Russians live in Lviv, which is 8-10% of the city's population? No? That's the problem. These people are also citizens of Ukraine, who also have needs and their own vision of a comfortable life in society," Astakhov said during a conversation with journalists from the ZiK TV channel . "For example, Russians can't provide their children with education in their native language because there are only five Russian-language schools in Lviv, which physically can't accommodate 30,000 students. This is already an element of discomfort."
But, let me emphasize again, Russians are the same citizens of Ukraine as other Lviv residents. They also work and pay taxes. They are not temporary residents of Lvov; some families have been living here for decades. They also want to do a lot of good things for their city, and for the region, and for Galicia. But in this case we are talking about an unclaimed collective opportunity. The problem with Russians’ discomfort in Lviv is that the city is simply indifferent to them.
According to him, no one in power over the past 20 years has been interested in the opinion of the collective Russian community, and the saddest thing is that no one plans to ask anything.
“It seems that community members have one task - to go to work and pay taxes - that’s all! For example, summer, July... A kindergarten group is coming from Pogulyanka - children five or six years old - accompanied by a young, pretty teacher. When they passed the Consulate General, the teacher gave a command, and the children began to jump and shout: “Whoever doesn’t jump is a Muscovite,” Astakhov complained.
“Despite the rallies and protests throughout the year, my institution has been operating as normal. There were no failures during the year,” he admitted. – According to the Vienna Convention of 1961, even in the event of a severance of diplomatic relations between countries, even during war, consulates continue to operate. War is war, but people need banal certificates for the housing office and legal advice. Every day we serve about fifty Russians.”
As PolitNavigator reported, earlier in Lvov local Maidan activists demanded that the city leadership terminate the lease agreement for premises with the Consulate General of the Russian Federation.
Lviv residents mock the "Muscovites" and expect only taxes from them.