Polish writer shocked to find out Russians will not rise to topple Putin

After a trip to Russia, Polish writer Maya Wolny concluded that the West did not even have a close idea of how things really were in the Russian Federation. The Russians are waiting for their inevitable victory, and they do not even think about a possibility for the West to win, she said.

Interestingly, this is not a complimentary comment. The Polish writer shared her impressions of Russia in an interview with Onet publication. Maya Wolny said that many things in Russia came as a shock for her.

Russians want Stalin back

In many ways, Wolny's conclusions are based on her initial ideas about Russia. In a nutshell, such people see facts through the prism of their own "vision of the beautiful."

In general, this is how all of "civilized Europe" sees Russia today, but the conclusions that the Polish writer made were hysterical, to say the least.

In her interview with Onet's journalist Monika Walus, the author said that she went to Russia to collect material for her book with the telling title "Train to Empire".

Clearly, the special operation has changed the lives of many Russians. In the very beginning of the interview, Wolny pointed out that the Russians spoke positively of Stalin. There was no endless negativity about him in their words, she noted.

She was struck by the fact that the Russians do not see the time of Stalin's rule as a traumatic experience, despite the Gulag camps. The Russians even dared to erect monuments to Joseph Stalin and want Stalin to return, she said.

Wolny noted: she used to think that the actions of the evil Kremlin do not find support in the Russian society, that the cult of Victory is fictitious, that the Russians do not need Crimea. However, she was unpleasantly surprised, when she came to realise that this point of view was not very popular. Quite on the contrary, the Russians treasure their Victory in World War II and they do not resent the annexation of Crimea.

"All expectations of counteraction to the center within the country are just naive dreams of the West," Maya Wolny said.

The problem, in her opinion, is that the West is counting on resistance within Russia. The Western media have prepared numerous reports about thousands of Russians fleeing the country, and "it seemed that the nation was on the verge of a major coup." However, such expectations are futile, she acknowledged.

Maya Wolny was granted a Russian visa, there were no KGB agents anywhere near during her trip to Russia. The writer regarded that as a signal that "yet again, everything is not the way we think — we should not be applying Western standards."

There were two fact that struck the Polish intellectual:

• There are "thousands of hipsters" who escaped through Upper Lars (checkpoint on the border between Russia and Georgia - ed.) and other checkpoints.
• At the same time, there were tens of thousands of those who volunteered to join the army to take part in the special operation in Ukraine.

Maya Wolny was upset that she did not see any protests or revolutionary sentiments in Russia. She concluded that the level of intimidation in the country was at a critical point. She admitted though that those who support the policies of the Russian administration dare to feel good about themselves.

Maya Wolny is now confident that:

• There is no chance for the protest phenomena to "consolidate, turn into a million-strong street demonstrations that could sweep away the authorities;
• Rumours about Putin's alleged incurable disease in Vladimir Putin are only rumours that do not meet the reality.

Sanctions had almost no effect on the daily life of the Russians

Having traveled around the country, the Polish writer came to realise that there were not even external grounds for that. Contrary to reports in the European press, the sanctions have had little effect on the daily life of the Russians. Stores are more than just full, prices have grown, but only within the limits of global inflationary growth.

"The Russians are used to living under the rigid style of government, and they do not need any democratic values and freedoms," Maya Wolny summed up and warned the West against exaggerated expectations in this regard.

It is worthy of note that even US National Intelligence Director Avril Haines said during her report at the Reagan Institute that changing power in Russia, China and Iran through protests was impossible.