The outSPOKEn Cyclist
By Diane Jenks
Back in February, you may remember my blog about my friend Dmitry Nechaev. He had recently fled Russia on the insistence of his wife and mother-in-law. At the time, he was pleading with the bicycle industry to continue its relationship with him while he both condemned the invasion of Ukraine and made his way to safety for himself and his family.
When we spoke (you can hear my first conversation with him on my podcast from March 3), Dmitry explained how difficult it was to leave and how he ended up in Israel.
At the time, his family — wife, two sons, mother-in-law, and the family dog – should have been close behind by a few days. Those days turned into several weeks and his family was finally able to get a flight out of Moscow with a final destination of Tel Aviv.
Dmitry is a custom bicycle frame builder, and his Triton titanium bikes were popular in many countries, including the U.S., parts of Europe, and even in Australia.
In the wake of his abrupt departure, Dmitry had to leave his five employees, all of his equipment, and many
customer orders that he could not fill at the time. Now, seven months later with the war continuing to rage, men of Dmitry’s age are being conscripted into the Russian army, and what was once a thriving nation is on the brink of disaster.
In a catch-up conversation with Dmitry last week, I wanted to know how he and his family are doing, how things are changing on a day-to-day basis in Russia, what his children think about this abrupt change in their lives, and what he sees as the future — for himself as well as his country.
Just as a means of some insight into what Dmitry told me and as a little background, I visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. several years ago and, while I don’t believe in coincidences, there was a newly curated propaganda exhibit that walked you through the beginnings of Hitler’s campaign to turn the suffering people of Germany against those who didn’t fit his “picture” of who was a real citizen and who needed to be eliminated.
Sure enough, the first topic of conversation with Dmitry was about the Russian government’s propaganda campaign and how it is playing into the stress of the Russian people.
More than one million Russian men have left the country in the past several weeks, seeking safety where they can. Many men are hiding out in the forests and most of Dmitry’s crew has escaped. He told me how three of them were driven to the border by their wives, hopped on their bikes and rode for several days to cross into safe territory.
When I asked Dmitry what he and his wife have told their 8- and 10-year-old boys, he explained that they were told the truth as best as it could be explained – although, there really isn’t a good explanation as to why “the president” (Dmitry refuses to use his name!) of Russia has made these decisions.
Dmitry believes that Russia is ripe for a civil war and made it clear that he would be jailed for saying such things if he was still in the country.
So, from Dmitry’s departure from Russia on February 27 until today, he is helping others arriving from Russia to Israel by picking them up at the airport and getting them resettled in apartments so that they can restart their lives.
His hope for the future? That he can get his crew back together and start building bikes again – maybe in Portugal or Serbia. He says that he wants to follow his passion for the work, but without much hope of ever returning to his homeland.
You can hear my most recent podcast conversation with Dmitry Nechaev on my October 15 episode.
