Local authorities have set up four checkpoints outside of town, he explains, but his driver friend easily avoids them by driving into the city on a parallel road.
At a roadside grocery they stop and Chernyavsky hops out, rifle in hand, to ask directions of a man standing nearby. “Excuse me, how do I get to the regional administration building?” he asks in Russian (1:46). The man helpfully explains: a turn just here, and then go straight all the way to the center. “You’ll see a three story building on your left and you’re there,” he says.
“Can I storm the building?” asks Chernyavsky. The man shrugs: “As you like.” Chernyavsky bounds toward the car, calling back to the man, “Russia is with you!”
They drive, Chernyavsky’s gun barrel visible through the car window. Another stop for directions, this time from a woman pedestrian (2:50). “Just drive straight on to the center, it’s right there,” she says. “Are our guys there, those who want to separate from Ukraine?” asks Chernyavsky, always in Russian. For her, this is too much. She turns away, calling out, “No, we don’t want to separate!”
“Then why are you telling me where the provincial headquarters is?” Chernyavsky shouts after her.
The intrepid pseudo-separatists next pull up (3:23) in front of the provincial headquarters of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU, the country’s main security and intelligence agency) and stop, careful to put on the car’s flashers. Pedestrians, including a police officer, stroll by, ignoring Chernyavsky, uniform, gun and ribbons.
And so, unchallenged, they drive on to the provincial government building (3:50). Chernyavsky steps out, hefting his weapon as he strides down the empty sidewalk. “It would seem that dozens, or hundreds of men armed to the teeth could move through the city just as easily as we’ve managed, with the help of the locals pointing them on their way to come and seize this government building,” he tells the camera.
Inside the main entrance to the halls of state power, he meets, finally, a lone policeman (4:28).
“Good day! Can I get in please?” Chernyavsky asks.
“Of course not. You’re not allowed to enter with a weapon,” answers the cop.
“May I seize this administration building?” Chernyavsky presses, rather a polite putschist.
“What are you, joking?” asks the policeman, looking slightly nervous.
“What? I can’t? It’s not allowed?” Chernyavsky asks, surprise in his voice.
“Of course it isn’t allowed.” the policeman answers, a bit surer now.
“Well, okay, we’ll have to come another time,” Chernyavsky tells him.
Then, as he walks out, he speaks again to the camera: “They didn’t let us in, that’s good.”
Outside the government headquarters, Chernyavsky recounts to his camera how easy it all was. As he does, two policemen walk past him (4:45), but then turn back and finally ask what he is doing. Chernyavsky explains how he drove through the city, how people helped him with directions, how no one even tried to stop him despite the uniform, guns and even the separatist ribbons.
“Weren’t you afraid of my rifle?” he asks.
“No, we have pistols,” answers one of the young officers not very convincingly.