Victor Loshak: "To turn protests into discussions"

Interesting speakers are always welcome at Vestnik Kavkaza. Our colleague Oleg Kusov talks to the guests of our studio and not necessarily about the Caucasus. The section “Take my word” records these conversation in audio, video and text formats.Today the guest of the heading “Take my word” the former editor-in-chief of the Ogonyok magazine, now — the director of strategy of IDES the "Kommersant" Victor Loshak.Conversation recorded before the tragic events in Odessa on May 2.

And the first question – that we always ask our guests – when was the last time you were in the Caucasus and how do you remember it?

If we think that the territory of the embassies is the territory of the states they represent, then I went to the Caucasus last week - I met with Polad Bulbuloglu, the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Russia. I have been to Georgia twice recently. I prepared an interview with the Georgian Minister of Defense Irakli Alasania and then with the Georgian persecutor. I made a trip to Armenia as a part of the cultural delegation to Yerevan, it was also very interesting.

I need to say that as a journalist you were formed in Odessa.

Yes, sure.

You are a very recognizable journalist in this Odessite format. I noticed that your articles, even those on the very serious issues, still have a touch of the Odessite irony.

You know, this is what helps in life. If we talk about Odessa, it creates in every of its residents some kind of ironic mirror in which you are looking, it does not allow you to think too high of yourself, or to treat the life too seriously, it creates an ironic distance with everything that happens around you. This is very helpful and saves in many situations. In addition, from a professional point of view, in Odessa for many years a was a feuilleton writer. And this defined the way I approach the life and the material, if we talk about journalism. Thank you for pointing this out.

So now I think it is the right time to move to the sad topic – to Ukraine. Odessa is now also in the epicenter of events, it is not the right moment to laugh or joke there.

You know, I would not dramatize the situation, if we speak of Odessa. Odessa has always been aside of the Ukrainian mainstream, all that struggle for the Ukrainian, for the national interests and culture. Historically, Odessa has been a very international city, that stood on its own. When Odessa was created, it was a city of free trade. Odessa was always a city of those who created it. Even in Moscow people know of Duc de Rishelieu, the governor of Odessa, whose monument stands on the Potemkin staircase. The city was created by the French whose were running away from the French Revolution and they created the city which would be comfortable for all - Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Greeks, Italians. The city was fantastically international. And Odessa kept that internationality, despite the years and migration. Of course, Odessa is not alien to whatever happens in Ukraine. Odessa has its own strong pro-Russian movement, its own anti-Maidan for people who want federalization, who want Novorossiya – the regions of Odessa, Nikolayev, Kherson – to become a separate federative Ukrainian territory. But I would like to tell you about the general mood in Odessa. Perhaps, it would be interesting to those who follow the events in Ukraine. Odessa is a pro-Russian territory of Ukraine. But in general, if we leave aside the extremes, Odessa does not have any separatist desires, as it was with Crimea. I would say that Odessa is much calmer than the other Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine.

In your recent text in Ogonek on the Ukrainian situation – although you write more about Donbas than about Odessa – there is a sentence, I quote: “Russian, anti-Russian feelings are not the main cause of the tensions in Donbas. Patience, poverty, property – all those is more important than national”. So actually the social problems are today more important for the supporters of the federalization.

And in the end of our program we have a tradition which we adopted from Vladimir Pozner. He asks serious questions, using Marcel Proust, but our questions are easy and spring. I ask you to answer them shortly. Do you want to leave for abroad? I mean not in the post-Soviet space.

Of course I don’t. I have never thought about it, as well as my wife and my children.

At the same time, you visit Europe and America regularly.

Yes, I do.

Are there any cities which amaze you, except for Odessa?

Probably my answer will be banal, but I do like Paris. “He’s so trivial, he likes Paris.”

They say Paris is big Odessa, while Odessa is small Paris. Do you switch your mobile phone off at night?

I don’t. To be a journalist, an editor-in-chief means always being switched on. I mean once you’ve been switched on and…

24 hours a day. Can you solve problems while sleeping?

It’s called full-time. Sometimes interesting ideas are born at night. They say night working is very effective. It eliminates daytime crazy ideas, and at nights ideas are… You know it is an interesting topic, I mean working. Sometimes when I give the go-ahead to publication, I understand at night that I have had a mistake there – a tactical, a grammar, a stylistic mistake. And at the morning you look and see that there is a mistake really.

What is your favorite transport for traveling – by plane, by train, by car?

I should say that I am a city man. I have city behaviors. I don’t like hiking alone and so on. If I travel, I prefer a plane or a car. A rest for me is going in for sports at sea. If I am by the sea and play basketball or tennis, it is the best vacation for me.

What is a formula of success for young people?

Follow your mission rather than recommendations and money.