This unaltered story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.org.
License [2]: Creative Commons 4.0 - Attributions/No Derivities/Int'l.
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Russians objecting to the Ukraine war are being fired

By:   []

Date: 2022-06 

After speaking with the guards, Daniil was convinced that they were no ordinary employees from the gallery’s private security company, but members of Russian security services. “I’ve had to talk more than once with members of the security services, they have an absolutely unique way of speaking and a distinct sense of their unlimited power and impunity,” the artist said. “Ordinary security guards don’t talk like that and don’t look like that.”

Daniil’s two bosses managed to convince the guards not to hand him over to the police. But his official entry pass was deactivated that evening and the artist was told he would never be allowed inside the building again. “I understand it was this security service that pushed for my dismissal. I heard that three or four days after the incident, my superiors tried to reinstate me, and that even the director of GES-2 learnt about the case and tried to intervene in my favour,” Daniil said. But none of these people had any influence on the gallery’s security team, which turned out to have higher decision power than the senior staff of the centre.

“For the state, GES-2 is some kind of sacred place, it’s like [the park] Zaryadye. It’s a very modern European institution, with modern perspectives, but it’s clear that its funding comes from the top. Inside GES, one security service is in control. On paper, it’s just a private security company guarding the complex. I’m convinced they are real FSO officers,” Daniil says. [The Federal Protective Service (FSO) is a federal government agency assuring the protection of high-ranking state officials, as well as certain federal properties.] “Don’t forget that the GES-2 House of Culture is literally across the bridge from the Kremlin.”

After the Russian invasion, GES-2 closed all exhibitions of the current season “for ethical reasons” and issued a statement about the “difficult and ambiguous situation” in Ukraine. openDemocracy asked GES-2 about their policy regarding employees who disagree with the actions of the Russian authorities. The institution’s press service replied: “Not a single employee [of GES-2] has been fired. Some colleagues left the team of their own free will and due to their personal beliefs.”. As for Daniil’s, GES-2 said that his contract had been “terminated because he committed an act of vandalism” in the workplace.

Daniil says his inscription “No to war!’ was painted over with a neat white square half an hour after having appeared.

Hairdresser, Krasnodar

The beauty salon where Aida worked in Krasnodar, a city in southern Russia, is located in a basement under a residential building. Half the cars in the building’s parking lot are adorned with the letter Z, the symbol of support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The small anti-war rallies that took place in the city at the start of the invasion were violently dispersed and people with anti-war views now try to speak carefully. Those who do otherwise are quickly faced with prosecution.

Aida worked as a hairdresser in the beauty salon for three years. She thought she had a good relationship with her boss, whose husband is a police officer. The two women chatted about lots of different subjects, but never about politics.
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[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/russia-ukraine-job-losses-anti-war-protests/
[2] url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/
    
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