Just as Russia apparently intruded into America’s election, it also intruded into the French Open when Ukrainian tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky lashed out in a wide-ranging interview with Inside Tennis in which he said Russia is a dangerous “abuse of power” country run by Putin and his oligarchs where “you can’t go against the system or you die.” It’s an important, chilling read.
Bill SIMONS
PARIS – One of the glorious things about tennis is that it’s so international. Today, twenty-five Japanese reporters flocked to hear every word Kei Nishikori has to say, and later a cluster of Ukrainians quizzed Sergiy Stakhovsky. When they were finished, Inside Tennis began to chat with the Ukrainian, who famously beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2013 and then, in 2014, protested Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.
Once ranked No. 31 and now No. 123, he admitted that at 31 he is just playing for the money to provide for his family, who now live in Budapest. Almost with glee, he said that his efforts to go gluten-free were a complete flop. Then we joked that since the Ukraine has such problems with Russia, we Americans could probably use some advice on how to deal with Putin. He laughed and contended that America “has it even worse.”
Very quickly, Stakhovsky got very serious. His dark, prototypically Eastern European mindset came to the fore. “Unfortunately,” he said, “if you take a worldwide look, it’s not only our country and your country [that have problems]. You see what happened in Manchester and in Paris last year. It’s not right.” We asked, “Is there something wrong with the way people are thinking or with the governments?”
“The governments are working the way they they’ve always worked. In some countries you have two parties – say the Republicans vs. the Democrats. In others you just have one, and when you do, it’s dangerous, because you can create pretty much any reality you want – and in Russia they’ve created a reality where they can kill you.”
We thought to ourselves, This guy is going deep. So we just dove in and asked, “Were you surprised that the Russians appeared to have interfered with the U.S. election?”
“No, not at all,” he replied. “That’s what they’re capable of. When you go to Russia and watch TV, the product they create for Russians is a very good reality. It’s great for them.
“If I were a Russian watching TV I would support it too because they frame it so well so that [it seems] there isn’t any other way but Putin’s …You don’t have a free press in a big country like Russia – which has thousands of nukes. It’s a very dangerous place.”
We then noted that tennis’s very own Marat Safin actually got into the Hall of Fame and is also in the Russian parliament.
Sergiy said, “He’s in the Dumas and he signed that annexation. There was just one politician in Russia who didn’t sign that and he was kicked out [of Russia] and died.
“Russia is a an abuse of power country. [Their] parliament [has] the most amount of billionaires in the world. Where are you going to go from there – if one person controls the resources and then he creates the vertical power by dividing whatever he owns?
Literally, you cannot go against the system in Russia. You cannot go against the system. If you do, in the best case, you land up in jail, or you die. It is hard for me to understand that there are no more moral values in any aspect of the world anymore.”
We interrupted, noting, “That’s a dark vision.”
“Well, it is what it is,” insisted Stakhovsky. “It’s a fact. It’s not like we could be running around saying it’s so good, but at the end of the day the running around isn’t going to do any good.
“If I were a Russian, would I risk saying something and land up being [taken] somewhere away from my family? Of course not. And that’s why I don’t travel to Russia.”
And what about the world’s perception of our new American President? “Unfortunately people are making fun of Trump everywhere. He was at that meeting and just pushed that leader from Montenegro out of the way. If you are running to see Federer play in New York I understand [doing that],” he joked. [But] it’s your President.
“But your political structure is so powerful. Thank God, it’s not just about Trump. It’s about the Senate. Constitutionally, it’s so good that one judge can just overrule him…[But] we are not here to judge him. You chose him. It’s your life.”
Then we went even deeper and asked, “What about President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who played such a critical, pro-Putin role in the Ukraine?” “People chose sides,” said Stakhovsky. “Today’s world is very simple. Everything is for sale and everybody buys.”
We continued by noting that the Soviet Union, of course, fell. But we wondered whether Russia will be able to change?
“Maybe Russia needs a dictator,” Sergiy bluntly stated. “We don’t know. But I don’t see how the system can end. Everybody’s so deep into it. Unless Putin dies or something else happens, I don’t see it changing. They will probably create another dictator and keep on rolling. There’s no democracy, which means there’s no choice.
“During Boris Yeltsin’s era there was more democracy because different people were able to persuade and pressurize. There was a kind of oligarchy democracy. It wasn’t like now. Everything wasn’t under one roof. There were a lot of people involved and they could push things around so people couldn’t just come in and say, ‘Okay, this is how it’s going to be’ and nobody’s going to oppose it.
“In Yeltsin’s time it was more liberal, but unfortunately he created this system of oligarchs. But Yeltsin was good and was trying to make something good. Now these wealthy men control the whole country.”
But what about his country, the Ukraine? We commented that there’s so little news on it. What’s happening?
Stakhovsky replied, “It’s war as usual. Every day we have casualties. The war goes on – there is no free zone. There are shellings and stuff, but the world doesn’t know – it doesn’t want to be bothered. Russian troops are in the Ukraine. It’s like if Florida wanted to break away from the union and troops went in and they get shelled by 1600 to 2500 shells a month. Now where would they get those shells from? Would they have the resources for them?
“Separatists want to have an independent country the size of the Paris district – very small. It all started with Russia’s special forces coming into the Ukraine to different cities and attacking the special services and offloading the guns that were all in the basements and giving them to drug addicts and criminals. In one day they attacked four cities and created complete chaos.
“The Ukraine didn’t have any military, but there were volunteers…The Russian army crossed the border. Then we understood we could not clean up our own territory and control our border. Now we have constant fire-fighting and shelling everyday. They are shooting from Russian territory. It’s a steady grind…[But] it’s worth fighting for.”
But what of Sergiy’s relations with the other Russian players when the Ukrainian civil war was at its peak? “We had our challenges in 2014 and ’15. We had a lot of fights,” Stakhovsky admitted. “I was really upset about the way the Russians were putting themselves into the Crimea during the annexation and the way they were putting themselves into eastern Ukraine where Russia pretty much stole our land. I was very angry they never stated their intention.”
