Beware of imputing to others the opinions that you believe you share with many people, thinking they will be the same. It’s not so.
A few days ago, I finish shopping in a supermarket in my local town, and step into the lift pushing my trolley, to go down to the car park on the two levels below. I am joined by a man who asks in a heavily eastern European voice, “Which floor?” I say, “Basement, please,” and he presses the button. The doors close and as the lift starts to descend, I ask where he is from. He smiles and says: “Russia. I live in Moscow. But I am really from Belorussia. Do you know where that is?” I say, “Yes, I do. It’s to the north of Ukraine.” He frowns and I realise I should steer clear of the discussing the war. I tell him that he speaks good English, and his smile returns. I tell him I visited Russia a long while ago, but I only recall 2 words and that is ‘thank you and please’ – ‘spasiba and pashaluista’.
The lift clanks as we reach our destination, and the doors open. He bows slightly and ushers us out, me and my trolley. We stand outside the lift before going to our respective cars and he says, “It is good to meet somebody who’s been to Russia.” I say, “I like Russian people but I’m not so sure about your leader.” Upon he promptly said, “Oh you are making a mistake about our president.” Indeed, I have made a mistake – I assumed that he is probably in the UK because he does not care for the current Russian regime. Now it seems he is a supporter of Putin which I find is more interesting. We all hear people sounding off about Putin because he’s so autocratic and misguided (to put it mildly). Few dare to sing his praises in this country.
The Russian continues earnestly. “You all got it wrong. It is the Ukrainian leader, Zelensky, who is bad and corrupt. He has a very large, very expensive property on the coast which cost millions of hryvnia, and nobody is knowing about this. The whole of Ukraine is so corrupt, and they provoked the Russian government into this conflict.” He is about to continue, when I jump in to say, “We have heard that Putin is the one with huge expensive properties.” He responds, “No, no. He is totally misunderstood by the West.” I smile at the man, and say, “Well, we must agree to differ”
At this juncture, since we are standing outside the lift doors which have now closed, we are asked to move by someone who wants to press the bell for the lift.
I start to walk towards the car park as he does. I say, “It’s been so nice to meet you.” Whereupon his grin returns and he shakes me warmly by the hand, and says: “Dosvidaniya”, and I say” Goodbye”.