"Crimea is a sacred and holy place for me and for every single Russian"

Vika Tsyganova, along with Mikhail Porechenkov, Iosif Kobzon, Ivan Okhlobystin and Mikhail Zadornov, became one of the first Russian artists to be declared persona non grata in Ukraine. The singer recently returned from Crimea and shared her impressions of the trip.: "Crimea is a sacred and holy place for me and for every single Russian. I was born in the Far East, near the coasts of the Pacific Ocean. And for me, Crimea was a fairy tale, or a dream, because my dad served in the Pacific Fleet. Being an officer, he told me a lot about the Black Sea. That is why Crimea is something magic and fabulous for me. At school I even sang a song called ‘Legendary Sevastopol, impregnable to enemies’. And all the time I was dreaming about  Crimea, as I wanted to travel there.

People are encouraged and they are encouraged by their return to Russia. Now Crimea is experiencing some changes, because they became a part of another country. So it is necessary to reissue passports, receive Russian car numbers and all that tied with bureaucratic red tape. These circumstances influence people and make them feel a little bit nervous. Crimea has revealed the patriotic potential for the whole of Russia, for the whole world. The reason why I say this is when it belonged to Ukraine, people often asked why we were left here. They wanted to stay at home. And I answered: ‘‘Why are you telling me this? I am just a woman, I am not the Lord God, who can change anything.’’ I just cried with them, shared their aspirations and spiritual feeling. If we look at emotional state of Crimea, it is clear that the peninsula has changed for the better.

But there are a lot of things we need to work on. I have been only in Sevastopol in the last 20 years. I wasn’t invited to perform there. That's why I didn’t travel there. I can compare: Ukraine did nothing in order for Crimea to become prosperous. It has become only worse than 20 years ago. Broken roads, houses, and absence of health centers. "

Vadim Tsyganov, the singer Vika Tsiganova’s producer said that the war should be stopped by any means. I had a conversation with the priest Eli. I know that Vika could be included on this list. But we always tried to prevent war. We were in Chechnya nine times. We were in Odessa on April 10th in 2014 just before the fire.. Any violence should be stopped. -Do you remember that Gogol was Russian, Pushkin (Ethiopian) was Russian, as well Lermontov, Vysotsky, etc. People have the same spirit, it is strong and nothing is able to kill it. Therefore, when we speak about peace, they want war. I analyzed everything, they just want military actions. Vika sang a song called ‘This is my motherland’, or ‘We will be forever, brothers, before the icons, before the crucifix with Orthodox prayers to God we will be equal - Belarus, Russia, Ukraine.’’ But this son was banned by the Ukrainian sites. This is our appeal, and they prohibited it. Brothers, stop doing this. It is shocking!

Those, who are governing now in Ukraine call themselves Ukrainians, but for me, a Ukrainian is like a Russian, or a Belarusian. No one will deny that there was Kievan Rus. Rus is a unifying principle. We have some peculiarities, but genetically we are the same. Our languages are very similar. This was at all times except for dissidence and Bandera cases. Dissidence was at the church level. We speak not about Bandera, but about pseudapostle, and we mean the spiritual split. It's an extremely small part. And I have a lot of relatives and friends there, and I and Vika have never called for any war. "