What does the Russian-speaking community of Philadelphia think of Trump?

Judging by the polls most Russian-speaking Americans voted for Donald Trump or supported him. German edition Frankfurter Rundschau visited the Russian-speaking community of Philadelphia and found out what influences the views and sympathies of the Russian-speaking Americans. ForumDaily posts translation material.

A few months after the election, the popularity of the new head of the White House among US residents is falling, but members of the Russian-speaking community are among the most loyal of his supporters who do not believe in the relationship between Trump and Russia and are convinced of the need to give him a chance to implement the planned reforms.

The narrow glass doors of the Petrovsky Market supermarket open like a gate to another world: outside the American idyll of a suburb with neatly trimmed lawns in front of flat single-family cottages and with US flags on flower beds, and inside - caviar from Russia, cakes from Ukraine, brackish mineral water from Georgia round cakes from Uzbekistan. On loudspeakers in the supermarket advertise the lawyer on migration issues. From the vegetable department comes the smell of dill.

Welcome to Basleton Avenue in northeastern Philadelphia, where Russian life in the United States is particularly noticeable. Pharmacists, shoe sellers, hairdressers lure customers with advertising in Russian. Basleton Avenue is the address for all those in America who once came from the East to find their happiness in the West, and who still yearn for a piece of the old homeland.

These people came not only from Russia, but also from Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and other republics of the former Soviet Union. They share a common history - and the language that immediately makes them "Russian in America." In Philadelphia, the Russian-speaking community accounts for up to one-third of the population in some areas. Several tens of thousands live in and around Philadelphia, this trend is increasing. Roots of over four million americans — in the former Soviet Union.

Since Donald Trump has ruled and all the new details of the scam about the Kremlin’s possible interference in the US 2016 election of the year, as well as about the contacts between the Trump camp and Moscow, have appeared, these migrants are getting more and more in the spotlight. What do they think about the alleged links between Trump and Vladimir Putin? Do they think the Kremlin has intervened in the US election? At least on Basleton Avenue, many have voted for Donald Trump and remain loyal to him, even when his support in the country decreases. Also in terms of dealing with migrants, many support the president.

Andrei Voloshin walked into the Petrovsky Market supermarket to make a couple of quick purchases between the stalls with smoked fish and skewers with kebabs. He is 35 years old, has a round face and lacks teeth, he emigrated from Kiev ten years ago. Now he has — tile store, near the supermarket. He did not want to give his real name, like many here, if they are at all ready to enter into conversation. On Basleton Avenue, they prefer to be among their own, and this applies not only to the Russian community. At the city border of Philadelphia, the United States is more like a mosaic than a whole.

“Trump is bad for America,” says Voloshin. — He says one thing, the other. ” The young entrepreneur does not expect any progress in the coming years. And he fears too much closeness between Trump and Putin - even when their relations have recently become less friendly than expected, and after the Congress sanctioned Russia dramatically narrowed Trump's freedom of action to establish closer relations with Russia. .

Voloshin is convinced that the Kremlin is behind the hacker attack on the Democrats' e-mail and further cyber attacks to influence the elections.

“Putin wants to achieve changes in US policy in order to increase his power,” the immigrant believes.

Фото: Depositphotos

Such an opinion on the territory around Petrovsky Market is rather the exception.
Of course, Americans from the former Eastern bloc are not the same with respect to Trump and the Russian scam, like the rest of the country: the young are in most cases more liberal, the elderly are often more conservative. The split passes through the family, but at the table prefer not to talk about politics. But along Basleton Avenue, there is a rather clear distinction, which is unusual for Philadelphia with a predominance of Democrats. The sympathies of Russian-speaking Americans in most cases belong to the Republicans. Democrats are often equated with the socialists, and in fact they fled from them in Soviet times.

Just a couple of steps from the Petrovsky Market, in the back room of the perfume shop sits Gary Vulakh, with a gray mustache and a short-cropped hair. He also hails from Kiev, but arrived in Philadelphia almost 40 years ago, when Moscow slightly opened the iron curtain for the Jews. Today Woolha has a tiny workshop where he fixes jewelry. He does not believe that Russia had any influence on the elections in the United States. “Can they even do something like that?” He asks incredulously.

Vulah, a polite man of 57 for years, fully supports the American president. Although he did not vote for him, because he did not think that his vote meant anything, but he "was glad that Trump had won." About the previous president Vulah low opinion.

“The Democrats would rob America,” he complains, referring primarily to what he considers unnecessary government spending, such as Michelle Obama’s large staff.

Trump, on the contrary, has a state of his own, and he does not waste taxpayer money. This opinion is shared by no one Vulah.
“Democrats are afraid that Trump is too strong,” Vulach explains his accusations. He does not understand "how to be against Trump." After all, he had just begun work in this post.

“Ten months have passed since the election and he is trying to do his job. But they only talk about Russia all the time,” the man noted.

In this case, sympathy for Trump does not mean support for Putin. Many clearly oppose the head of state in the Kremlin, but in principle they want friendly relations so that matters do not come to war. Vulah, for example, hopes that Trump in foreign policy will listen to his advisers. For Putin, he doesn’t have good words, he calls him a "terrorist."

And in the perfume store itself, saleswoman Anna Smirnova—this is also a pseudonym—stands behind a glass counter and supports Vulakh. She draws her information partly from Russian television, which, however, she does not trust in everything. “The only real channel is Fox News,” she says. “Only there—on Trump’s favorite TV channel—they talk about what’s really happening in the country. I like Trump. “Everything will be fine,” the woman said.

“Trump wants only the best for the country,” said Malvina Jacobi, who came to America from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

Together with Olga Ratnovskaya from Moscow, she created the Philadelphia News more than 20 years ago. This newspaper is a kind of central body of the local Russian-speaking community.

Her little edition is in a simple bungalow on a wide exit highway.
“Many Americans thought that they were bypassed by politics, many were disappointed with Barack Obama,” says Jacobi, who, like many others here, supports Trump, even when his policies sometimes resemble the policies of the former Soviet Union states. - from attitude to the media to nepotism.

The previous administration was corrupt, says a 57-year-old blonde. The “one-sided” information in the “mainstream media” reminds her of propaganda that she knows too well from the time of the Soviet Union.

“We love the USA,” says Jacobi. — They give us the opportunity to be free. ”

In the Russian scam, Trump's guilt, they say, is only assumed, and now they are trying to find evidence. Diana Glickman considers these accusations “just an anecdote.” Glickman is 45 years old, has black hair, wears a white blouse, and came to the United States from Kyiv at the age of five. She moderates a Russian-language program on the Internet, collaborating with her newspaper colleagues.

“Only rumors, there is no evidence,” she insists.
All these alleged ties of Russia show Putin as “the greatest in the world,” says Jacobi.

“At the same time, he is not as omnipotent as the media portrays him,” the woman is sure.

She cannot imagine that Russia has somehow influenced the elections, rather, it’s a distracting maneuver of the democrats and the media, the outcome of which should be Trump’s impeachment. She also demands that the president and his policy be given first a chance, including in his migration plans.

“We waited five to six years before we received citizenship,” says Glikman. Therefore, she advocates stricter immigration control and laws. The president, they say, has nothing against migrants until they are ready to work and go through the legal and complicated process of obtaining citizenship — the same as the Russians went through in the northeast of Philadelphia. Jacobi and Ratnovskaya first worked as cleaners before they founded their newspaper. They recall the difficulties that they had to overcome in order to achieve something without resorting to the help of the state. Obama, on the contrary, just let everyone into the country.

These three in the election voted for Trump. He may not be the best fit for the White House, but Trump knows what Glickman thinks people want in this country. For her, a businessman as president — better than many other politicians.

“Trump has already achieved more than other politicians have promised,” she says, referring to government debt and the number of unemployed after he came to power.

Thus, it turns out that for many, Trump’s identity is not as important as the perceptions and values ​​that he represents. Young people from a generation of migrants say: many elderly people have brought a piece of the Soviet Union with them to the USA. They mean the desire of people for a strong leader. For them, Trump is the personification of their conservative ideals. They admire those who have achieved something in the USA. In addition, Malvina Jacobi still inserts, there was something else that influenced their decision last November: "We did not have a good alternative in electing the president."

Translation prepared edition Inosmi.

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