Bath day. Or rather, bath evening. We had a good time in the steam room. Each of us drank two pints of tea and a glass of cha-cha. We met at the sauna at 6 p.m. We discussed the political situation in temperatures of 100 degrees Celsius. Then the historian and journalist Danylo Yanevsky arrived, and he banned us from talking about politics in general, and Tymoshenko in particular, in order not to ruin the sauna’s positive effects on our state of health.
I walked home, passing by the Maidan. There, around campfires, people were talking about the latest news from Moscow. Apparently, the new agreement on the price of gas has a clause that enables the Kremlin to revise the price every three months. Depending on Yanukovych’s behaviour. I imagine that’s not the only interesting bit of small print in that contract.
A guy who had been arrested near a brazier, next to the Independence monument, said that he went up to a policeman this morning and asked him if it was true that they were no longer allowed to hit protesters. The policeman showed him his rubber truncheon and very kindly answered him: ‘They talked about us not hitting people, but they gave us truncheons. And when you have a truncheon in your hand, what are you going to do? You’re going to use it!’
Yes, it’s the same thing as giving everyone machine guns and ammunition and telling them not to shoot.
In Russia, Pussy Riot have been freed, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova immediately broke the news on Facebook. Moscow is ‘democratising’ in preparation for the Winter Olympics. If that is the case, they’ll be releasing others too. Maybe even Khodorkovsky!9
Euromaidanistas and antimaidanistas continue to do their thing. Sasha Irvanets, writer and pro-Maidan activist, went to Kharkiv to give a speech. I didn’t go with him, even though the poet and writer Serhiy Zhadan asked me to. I have neither the desire nor the strength to appear onstage and play at being a politician.
The antimaidan activists always complain that they are not given the money they were promised for taking part in the protests. However Andrey, from Lazarevka – where we have a country house – said that people in the village bring not only money but also warm clothes to the Maidan. Kievites continue to supply thousands of jackets and sweaters, dropping them in various places, so that anyone who needs them can dress warmly. Two or three days ago, I saw an old lady carrying hand-knitted socks and offering them to guys near the barricades in Hrushevskoho Street. The first one she spoke to said he already had two pairs.