Members of NY’s largest Russian-speaking community in Brighton Beach wish mutiny bid on Putin wasn’t halted

Metro

By Khristina Narizhnaya and Rich Calder

June 24, 2023 | 6:16pm

Residents of New York’s largest Russian-speaking community praised the apparent effort to overthrow Vladimir Putin’s regime — before becoming agitated hours later after the mercenary Wagner Group abruptly called off its advance on Moscow.

“This is bad news; he should have continued to advance,” said Janet Pribysh, of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, referring to the armed munity on the Kremlin led by Yevgeny Prigozhin

Prigozhin eventually ordered his mercenaries to halt their march on the Kremlin and retreat to field camps in Ukraine, apparently diffusing the most significant challenge to Putin during his more than two decades in power.

“We were hoping that they would kill each other like scorpions and free Ukraine from their presence,” added Pribysh, 53, who fled Moscow more than three decades.

“Both Putin and Prigozhin are criminals and bandits; all this is their political games,” quipped Igor Cherny, 60, who arrived in Brighton Beach from Odessa more than 30 years ago. “First, Putin pissed his pants and left, then Prigozhin pissed his pants and turned around.”

Mila Styagina, 52, another Odessa native now living in Brighton Beach, hopes the coup bid at least fuels efforts to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The hope is that this shook the people up a little; that [Prigozhin] was within [124 miles] from Moscow. That people will do something and this war will end. America should also be helping Ukraine,” she said.

Hours before Prigozhin’s order to halt the coup, many Brighton Beach residents had hailed reports of the armed munity.

“We have been waiting for this news for a long time,” said Gregory Gimpelev, a 76-year-old Belarus native. “Putin has been marching toward his death It is time to get rid of this monster, so that Russia can finally become a civilized country.”

Gennady Kaverin, 65, said Prigozhin “isn’t exactly an angel,” but his coup bid was “a good turn of events.”

“Right now Russia is the most cruel, top aggressor in the whole world,” added Kaverin, who left Kyiv for the United States in 1996.

Sofia Kotlyarenko, another Kyiv native now living in the so-called “Little Odessa,” hoped Prigozhin’s efforts would’ve led to “death for Putin and the Kremlin.”

“They deserve it for the way they tortured people; the way they tortured children,” said Kotlyarenko, 85, who has lived in Brighton Beach for 31 years. “I am Ukrainian, so I support Ukraine. I am happy there is a coup.”

Vasily Gogol, 45, arrived from Ivano-Frankovsk in Ukraine 27 years ago. He said the Kremlin got a taste of its own medicine.

“A bunch of my friends were killed over there [during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine]. What can I say? They were happy when we were getting killed, so now they can feel it on their skin,” he said.

Sergei Artemyev, 54, who arrived in Brighton Beach from St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1990, said the attack was necessary because “Putin has crossed a line.”

“I don’t feel bad for him. I feel bad for the people who will suffer,” said Artemyev.

Aleksey Efremov, 38, who moved to Brighton Beach from Chelyabinsk, Russia, about a year ago, said she’s spent the previous night on the phone talking to friends in her native country who are “scared” and want to join her in the United States.

“They want to come here to escape the mayhem,” said Efremov, works as a server at Gosht restaurant in Brighton Beach. “Those who support the war, and those who are against it, they’re scared.

“The situation is already tense with the war [in Ukraine] and now something incomprehensible is starting. Everyone has a lot of questions and no answers. They don’t know which politician to believe.”