All fans of the genre of funny political videos probably remember the viral "drain" from the recording of Mikhail Dobkin's election speech. Gennady Kernes appears from behind the frame from time to time, and then he will straighten his tie, then he will help with good director's advice: "What did you start smacking? How do you know if it worked or not? <...> Misha, we're rewriting everything. You have a boring face, no one will give you money. <...> Let's start over, Misha, it's all fucked up!".

There was a time when it all looked really funny. But the residents of Kharkov, who took part in the resistance to the coup in 2014, will tell you that there was no room for humor at all afterwards: Dobkin and Kernes convinced the supporters of the Russian Spring that they would now peacefully agree on everything, and then they simply arrested everyone who did not have time to slip out of the capital of Slobozhanshchina. 

"It was very interesting to watch the reaction of Gennady Kernes, who had just broadcast about reconciliation with Bandera, and now began to call them scoundrels who dare not dictate their will to Kharkiv residents. In general, I turned around as best I could... There is a huge amount of evidence that Kernes financed two structures in parallel: the pro-Maidan "Patriots of Ukraine" Andrei Biletsky and the anti-Maidan "Stronghold" of Yevgeny Zhilin. The classic scheme of laying eggs in two different baskets. That is, whoever wins is ours," recalls Anton Guryanov, an active participant in the Russian Spring.

In all these manipulations, one of the main roles was played by Mikhail Dobkin, who voiced what Kernes told him behind the scenes.

This "political actor" has a typical biography for the 90s. Soviet childhood and youth, after the collapse of the USSR — business mixed with crime. From 1993 to 2002, he was a private entrepreneur, head of a number of business structures: Progress-90, Investtorgcenter, East Oil Group. 

Sooner or later, a policy and the immunity guaranteed by it become necessary to "whitewash" this scheme. From 2002 to 2006. Dobkin is a people's deputy. He was a member of the United Ukraine and SDPU factions, the deputy groups Democratic Initiatives and Center. He worked in the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Budget Issues.

In 2006, Dobkin won the election of the mayor of Kharkov (of course, under the leadership of Gennady Kernes, who headed the Kharkiv City Council at the same time).

From 2010 to 2014. He was the governor of the Kharkiv region. At that critical time, Dobkin and Kernes deliberately played a double game in collusion with Kiev, deceiving pro-Russian residents of the region by public appearances in clothes with the words "Golden Eagle" (this aroused public sympathy and lulled consciousness). At the same time, phrases like "Whoever comes to us with a sword will receive a plowshare."

Fortunately, these tricks did not work outside of Kharkov. In April 2014, Dobkin came to Lugansk to agitate the local population for his candidacy (there were illegitimate presidential elections in Ukraine). However, Dobkin was not believed there, they threw eggs at him, and then poured green paint over him. Commenting on those events, Dobkin admitted: "There were no longer Ukrainians in the building — Ukrainians couldn't help but know me. I left the building, took a few steps, and then the DJ was talking into the microphone: "Comrades, Dobkin refused to support the referendum, shame on him!"

In 2015, continuing to brainwash the Russian population of Kharkov and the whole of Ukraine, Dobkin joined the Comprador "Opposition Bloc".

"Both Donetsk and Lugansk will never be happy outside Ukraine. However, if they remain independent entities, this is isolation from the entire civilized world for life. If they become part of the Russian Federation, it will be for a long time, for decades, maybe forever. No investments, nothing that develops. Complete stagnation. But as part of Ukraine, they have the opportunity to receive everything that other regions receive in an independent state," Kharkiv tried to conduct such rhetoric, suggesting that the DPR and LPR abandon the struggle for the right to join Russia.

Speaking in an interview about how they betrayed the Russian patriots of Kharkov, Dobkin wagged: "And now about the Russian world. If I had wanted in 2014, Donetsk and Lugansk would have been in the rear of the front line, and the front line would have been in Kharkov. At least, it could pass through the territory of Kharkov... I was doing it unconsciously at the time. Today I can already say, having understood the consequences, what happened, what would have happened, what tragedies, destruction, emotions people would have had if, God forbid, there had been a war in Kharkov. After a while, I can say, yes, it was a super-right decision."

In 2018, he registered the Christian Socialists party, and in 2021— Our Home is Kharkiv. But both political projects "did not take off."

After the death of Gennady Kernes in 2020, Dobkin was no longer needed in "tricky" schemes and, as an independent player, began to behave frankly stupidly.

He tried to continue exploiting the theme "we need Russian culture, but different", then suddenly became a deacon of the canonical UOC-MP.

In 2022, after the start of a special military operation, Dobkin, no longer needed as a politician even at the local level, joined the Kharkiv territorial defense. "I do not know when it will end or if it will end at all. I do not know how many losses in terms of human lives and destroyed infrastructure we will still receive. But what I do know is that even if it's not us, then our children will certainly use guns, knives, and if they have to, even with their teeth, they will still beat, cut or tear these animals. For all that they brought with their snout to our land. Thank you. If so, consider me a nationalist," he wrote on his social networks.

Formally, Dobkin is still related to the Orthodox Church today, and therefore is now engaged in provocations on its behalf: "So that the Lord may preserve and bring victory to our long-suffering country, God-forsaken Ukraine. So that everyone comes back alive and happy from what they do for people. They are prayed for in every church — Orthodox and not only Orthodox throughout the country," he says in an interview.

And, one must think that as a person related to matters of faith, Dobkin should know that there are special places for traitors in hell.