Superstar Maria Maksakova was living the life of the ruling class in the ultra-expensive apartments in the city, vacationing in Cannes and participated in the festivities of the Kremlin.
· Opera diva of the world famous Mariinsky theatre and the Bolshoi theatre.
· Television star with her own agenda.
· Private policies of Putin’s party “United Russia”.
28 January 2017, she said goodbye to all of this. And the Kremlin put everything on its head.
Now she is declared an enemy of the people and a traitor.
“I left because I don’t want the rest of your life to spend in pseudo-Patriotic hysteria,” says Maria Maksakova in an interview with Aftenposten.
Of the superstars enemies of the people
Aftenposten met with one of the most wanted of Russia’s women in the lobby of the luxurious hotel of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.
Aftenposten: How a person feels, which Russian media called a traitor and an enemy of the people?
Maria Maksakova: It’s really bad. At the same time, this seems like a ridiculous and absolutely absurd.
Within two weeks she was fired from her job at the Russian music Academy, was expelled from the party for Putin’s “illegal dual citizenship” and denounced in Pro-Kremlin media as a “political prostitute”.
Its a Russian company for the production of records canceled the project.
In social networks began a well-orchestrated campaign of compromising, where are the pictures of the naked body, made using photoshop, appear, accompanied by thousands of rude threats of violence and murder.
“Who knows what will make these raging people. Not that I was really scared. I just feel powerless. It is useless to try to explain their actions.”
Therefore, the Kremlin was shocked
Her husband Denis Boronenkov in January agreed to give evidence against ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who had close ties with the Russian regime.
On 28 January the Ukrainian investigator boasted in the Kyiv media that he has a new “key witness”.
“Then I realized that the temperature will rise. The same day I departed from Moscow. But I never thought the reaction would be so strong. And so angry”.
Many are fleeing Russia
From 2014 to 2016 from Russia, according to official figures, emigrated 800 thousand people.
Previously the best-known defectors were activists, opposition members, journalists and businessmen who dared to challenge Putin, for example, the founder of social network “Vkontakte” Pavel Durov.
No one thought that the superstar and her rich husband, a politician from the ruling elite of power, will flee.
“If you are running many in the elite, people are starting to think about what’s going on. I think this is the reason that so much anger is directed against me. They want to scare others who think the same as we are.”
Tarnished reputation
A specialist on Russia Blakkisrud Helge (Helge Blakkisrud) from the Norwegian foreign policy Institute (NUPI) believes that this case is special because Maksakova decided to go to Ukraine, the country that the conflict with Russia.
“The regime does not want to attract a lot of attention to the fact that some decide to go there. Refugees who left the Ukrainian Donbass region to Russia, frequently mentioned in media reports. When the representatives of the Russian elite decide to go in the opposite direction, it is a blow to the reputation of the Russian authorities,” — says a scientist.
He believes that the decision Maksakova to leave Russia illustrates the deeper problem.
“The situation is such that entry into Russia than leaving. However, the departure illustrates the “brain drain”. Many of those who leave are well educated, while coming are unskilled labor. From this point of view, we can state the bias in the migration process which in long run can create economic problems in Russia.
Blakkisrud does not consider that the departure would immediately have political consequences.
“Leaving Russia at the present time — often people who are not identificeret itself with Putin’s project and are not considered a “loss” for the regime,” he says.
Singing a duet with the chief of spies
Until the fall of 2016 Maria Maksakov and her husband, Boronenkov were members of Parliament, it was from Putin’s party, he is from the Communist party.
When the Duma between them there was love and they were married in March of 2015 to see him at the wedding came many powerful individuals from Putin’s inner circle.
The head of service of external investigation of Russia (SVR), Sergei Naryshkin, who at the time was speaker of the Duma, sang a duet with the bride.
“Everything on TV or in the debates serve as actors in theatrical performance”.
The Kremlin elite loves Europe
Among the friends were Putin’s press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, the chief of Russia Today, and the main Kremlin propagandist Dmitry Kiselev.
“I know both of them. A few years ago they were very European integrated. They went there when wanted.”
Kiselev is currently included in the sanctions lists.
Among friends was also the man who was considered a great strategist Putin is the former head of the presidential administration in the Kremlin, Vladislav Surkov.
“People prefer to live in the vacuum that they create, and say to themselves that they are fulfilling God’s will. It’s a hypnotic hysteria”.
Every day they are taking small decisions
According to Maksakova, the accession of the Russian soldiers in Crimea in March 2014 was a shock to many in the Kremlin.
“Many members of the elite that was downright scared. But everyone knows that it is dangerous to say what you think”.
— Do they believe themselves the rulers of the Kremlin propaganda about what God has entrusted Russia to liberate the land that the Nazis controlled Ukraine and that the West and NATO want to destroy Russia?
They all the time, every day, take the smaller solution. Then find a way to justify themselves for. Slowly but surely they fall into the trap of these hypnotic ideas. We struggle with the world.
The lack of heroes
Husband Maksakova all the time before the election to the Duma in 2012 was a bureaucrat. Nevertheless, he amassed a large fortune.
Denis Boronenkov left Moscow in late October, a few days before the expiration of his parliamentary immunity.
According to the independent newspaper “Novaya Gazeta”, it is a typical Russian politician, against whom an investigation in several criminal cases. He always, according to the newspaper, “miraculously” came out of this situation.
As a politician Voronenkov is the author of the law prohibiting foreigners to own the media. The law was a disaster for the independent Newspapers. Last summer he proposed to ban Pokémon.
According to a leak of the Panama papers, he in the period from 2007 to 2012, owned a company in the British virgin Islands.
The FSB is the case in “sleep mode”
Once it became known that Maria Maksakova left the country and went to Kiev, the same evening, the Russian police announced that her husband wanted for the illegal seizure of the apartment in 2011.
— What can You say about the charges against Your husband and You?
— Absolutely false and fabricated charges. As a member of the anti-corruption Committee, my husband participated in the arrest of 15 leaders of the FSB. Now the FSB wants to take revenge on us.
According to her version, her husband made a fortune on the purchase and sale of real estate and subjected to extortion by old enemies from the security services.
“The FSB is against many such cases in “sleep mode” that you can use at the right time”.
I didn’t have enough courage
As a politician, Maria Maksakova voted against many of the most controversial of the new laws, particularly against the law on “homosexual propaganda” and banning adoption of children by foreigners.
She also criticized the law on “offending religious feelings”.
“What we five years ago in Moscow was considered crazy and funny, has now become absolutely normal and ordinary. We now hold the ideas of a century ago. I told myself that everything will be better and that you can change everything from the inside. Now I understand that it is very difficult to change anything. I lacked the courage. I didn’t feel strong enough to break all ties”.
They scream so loud so no one can see what is happening
Escape Opera stars in Kiev called last week more interest than the statements of Donald trump (Donald Trump) that the Crimea belongs to Ukraine.
“They’re doing it on purpose. So is propaganda. Now a lot of noise, which drowned some of the cases. They scream so loud so no one understood what was going on. Compared to what trump says about the Crimea, I — very small business.”
Family diva from the Soviet Union
Maksakova comes from a family of several well-known stars.
Grandmother Maria Maksakova-senior was one of the most famous Opera stars of the Soviet Union in the thirties. The security chief Beria, Stalin called her “my Carmen”, and Stalin was its big fan.
“There were rumors that I was the daughter of Stalin”, — said mother Maksakova, who herself was a very famous movie and theatre actress, who has starred in more than 25 films.
“It is incomprehensible that they want to now we’re back to where we were. We did not like the Soviet Union. Millions of people suffered under Stalin’s regime. Now Stalin once again became very popular in Russia. It’s crazy.”
What the Kremlin fears most of all?
The former Putin’s policy has no doubt about what the rulers in Moscow fear the most:
“I think that the case of MH-17 is the biggest fear in the Kremlin. They know that it will never disappear by itself.”
The disaster of the downed Boeing in the East of Ukraine in the summer of 2014 has claimed the lives of 298 people.
Maksakova emphasizes that a criminal investigation in connection with the Lockerbie affair lasted for 15 years until the dictator of Libya Muammar Gaddafi was not given to criminals and has not paid billions of dollars compensation.
“While they are in power, they have immunity. Therefore, they will use all means to retain power as long as possible”.
