Crimea: metamorphoses

Difficult questions about the future

The glee observed in the Crimea in the first days after the referendum came to naught. Crimeans are anxious: what will happen to children who study at Kyiv universities, with deposits in Ukrainian banks and whether they will take their usual way of life new “investors”

At the entrance to the Crimean parliament. Simferopol, March 2014

“I did not understand this general glee. It seems that Sevastopol has reasons to rejoice. But in my circle of communication, opinions about joining Russia were divided 50 to 50. Yes, and in our entire city, probably, the same way. Many are afraid: what will happen now? " -says 37-year-old Oksana, a private entrepreneur from Feodosia. According to her, when two weeks ago, the Betheras of "incomprehensible origin" drove through the streets of the city, many were frightened. Nobody dared to go out into the streets and protest: "They sat like mice, home, were afraid that they would beat." Who? “Yes, ours, locals, those who, like the undermined, campaigned for Moscow, some other people from Simferopol arrived here to help them.”

Demonstration on shares against the referendum on the department of Crimea. Simferopol, March 14, 2014
Unwanted elements?

Oksana has cramped business communications with Kiev: a product purchased through intermediaries in the Ukrainian capital-souvenirs and T-shirts-she sold to vacationers in her store. Oksana’s business partner sent the goods through the New Mail delivery service, but now this company has “temporarily suspended” the sending of goods to the Crimea. “Due to what I will live, it is incomprehensible,” Oksana complains. “The husband also cannot withdraw salaries from the card:“ Privatbank ”(the largest bank of Ukraine. - The New Times) turned off ATMs in the city.”

Anastasia, Oksana’s girlfriend, is another problem: the son is studying at Kiev University. Taras Shevchenko, and at the budget department. Now Anastasia is afraid that "they will not let his son finish his studies in connection with this bacchanalia."

Both women admit: they are not in a hurry to receive Russian passports, although they have already begun to issue them in Feodosia. “Double citizenship is prohibited in Ukraine. And to lose the Ukrainian passport is very scary, ”says Anastasia.

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"It is possible that those who want to stay in Crimea with Ukrainian passports will have to buy permission for permanent residence"

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Meanwhile, local lawyers are already warning Crimeans: those who decide to save Ukrainian passports may have difficulties. “It is possible that those who want to stay in Crimea with Ukrainian passports will have to obtain permission for permanent residence. Or they will create obstacles, put it in front of the dilemma: either accept Russian citizenship, or leave the Crimea, ”lawyer Yuri Marchenko shares her concern with the New Times.

The most fearful of everything is now Crimean Tatars. “Some strange crosses began to appear on our homes, as if they were marked,” 33-year-old Rustam, Tatar from Yalta, told the magazine. - While we are trying to go out of the house once again. In the evening we don’t go out at all. ”

The new name of the parliament in the Crimean Tatar language. Simferopol, March 18, 2014

First blood

The Kyiv authorities call Russian soldiers in the Crimea by the invaders, the branch of the peninsula from Ukraine does not recognize their military for Perekop. This creates additional tension in places of their deployment.

On the evening of March 18, the first blood spilled in Crimea: in Simferopol, near Kubanskaya Street, armed people in the form of Russian military attacked the photogrammetric center of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. And in the unfinished building nearby, snipers settled and began to fire to defeat. As a result, the ensign Sergey Kakurin was killed - the bullet hit him right in his heart. Shots in the neck and hand were wounded by the captain of the same part. Another Ukrainian soldier suffered from the “self -defense of Crimea”: he was beaten on the legs and head with bats and reinforcement. A short assault ended with the fact that the commander was taken away, and the center was captured. Under the storm, one of the self -defensemen died. The source of The New Times in the Simferopol Police City Government claims that he was killed by the same snipers who “laid it” and the Ukrainian ensign.

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“Some strange crosses began to appear on our homes, as if they were marked,” 33-year-old Rustam, Tatar from Yalta, told the magazine. - While we are trying to go out of the house once again. In the evening we don't leave at all "

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On March 20, the Russian military attacked the corvette of the Ukrainian Navy "Ternopol": the ship was thrown by combat grenades, damaging it. On the eve of the 19th, the Ukrainian military were forced to shoot in the air to protect their military unit near the Belbek airfield. On the same day, the Russian military captured two Ukrainian corvettes - “Lutsk” and “Khmelnitsky” in Streletskaya Bay: 200 Ukrainian sailors who were there, brought ashore.

By that time, the Russian military had already actually managed to arrest the military and civilian personnel of a number of Ukrainian units, as well as public activists - they were all taken to the village of Chonggar, on the border with the Kherson region. The headquarters of the Ukrainian Navy in Sevastopol, the commander of the Ukrainian Navy, Rear Admiral Sergey Gaiduk, was taken by storming. In the evening of the 19th, the head of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Andrei Parubiy demanded that the Russian military immediately free all the hostages. The head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense Igor Tenyukh called his Russian colleague Sergei Shoigu - the conversation was mainly about the detained Gaiduk. On the night on the 20s, it became known that all the hostages were released.

Fighters of Crimean self -defense when capturing the headquarters of the Ukrainian Navy. Sevastopol, March 19, 2014
For all this time, the Ukrainian military can record only two “victories” in an asset. The flagship of the Ukrainian Navy Frigate “Getman Sagaidachny” left the Odessa Port and, arriving in a given area within Ukrainian territorial waters, discovered four warships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and two Mi-35 fireplace helicopters. The Russian military was going to cross the sea border of Ukraine, but the commander of the hetman Roman Pyatnitsky made it clear that he was ready to give an order to defeat the shooting. After they raised the combat anxiety on the frigate, the Russians retreated into neutral waters.

Finally, on March 20, the Ukrainian authorities began to evacuate their military units from Crimea. At the same time, Ukraine asked the UN to declare Crimea a demilitarized zone, as well as take measures so that the Russian troops leave the peninsula. The first to leave the military unit to leave the Ukrainian military in Novoozern (not far from Evpatoria): they refused to go over to Russia and went under the marching of the Slavs. “What happened happened: the troops in the Crimea began to take up positions, gradually stop resistance, and Russian flags are raising over their deployment,” the political scientist, the head of the Kyiv Center for Military-Political Research, comments on the situation, Dmitry Tymchuk. And not without irony, he adds: "Otherwise, treason and oath would become a significant part of reality."

However, according to the new Crimean authorities, this is what is happening. The Ukrainian military in the territory of Crimea is actively crossing the side of the Russian Federation, “we can talk about thousands,” the Prime Minister of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov told Interfax on March 21.

One way or another, the People’s Deputy of Ukraine, the ex-Minister of Defense Anatoly Gritsenko accused the acting President Alexander Turchinov of “demoralization of the entire Ukrainian army”: he said that the commander in chief did not take any active actions for too long. “When they took the headquarters of the Navy, officers called me. I ask: "Do you have weapons?" - "No". They did not even give them Makarov pistols. What to do, break the leg of the chair and fight off it? Let Turchinov either sign the surrender and evacuate people, or gives the order to defend himself, including funds from the mainland. ”

Ukrainian soldier on a checkpoint near the border with the Crimea. Salkovo, Kherson region of Ukraine. March 18, 2014

Top -license questions

Most Crimeans guess: this year Ukrainians will not go to rest. Local residents do not understand what to do to those who do not want to receive Russian passports, what will happen to the taxes, where gasoline will come from at gas stations, how to re -register cars, what will happen to school textbooks, as well as deposits in banks*. Only those who took loans in Ukrainian banks are happy now. “I owe $ 10 thousand banks - I took it for repairs in a house for tourists. This year, we will find a boom of tourists from Russia, I will earn well, and you will not have to give a loan, ”says a 40-year-old entrepreneur from Sudak Alexei.

But many have a different situation. The offices of Ukrainian banks are empty, ATMs are disconnected, and hundreds of thousands of Crimeans can neither pick up their contributions, nor to withdraw at least money for a living with a “salary” card.

By the way, not everyone shares the optimism of Alexei about tourists. “Who will go here when there are still soldiers on the streets? -A 56-year-old resident of Gaspra (near Yalta) Natalya is perplexed. - Yes, and Ukrainians as tourists, I think we have lost for several years. And they used to go twice a season, and there were definitely at least half of them. ” Natalia closes her eyes and tiredly runs his hand over her forehead: “It became scary to live. Whatever anyone tells you, and we already hate these "green men". "

Natalia's friend Olga lives in Yalta. A few days ago, Olga says, five Russian soldiers immediately settled in her house. “They said that they have permission to settle where they want. We went in their bots, put my bathroom and demand to feed them three times a day. Where can I go? I live alone, not even a husband. Now I think, is it not to run away at all? "

Five of the Russian military settled in Olga’s house: “They said that they have permission to settle where they want. We went in their bots, put my bathroom and demand to feed them three times a day. "

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Travel agencies in Kyiv, Kharkov and Donetsk are already reporting mass refusals of Ukrainian tourists from pre -reserved vouchers to the Crimea. Now the priority is resorts in Georgia, Bulgaria, Turkey and rest in Odessa. “Now tour operators do not at all consider Crimea as a product,” says Miroslav Marchenko, an expert at the tourist industry, the tourist industry expert. “In past years, during this period, according to early reservation, all proposals for Crimea were already purchased by 80%, and this year, the reservation is from 12%to 15%.”

Her colleague from Feodosia, the head of the reservation service, Katerina Joff, admits that the situation with tourism is developing: “There are not a single reservation ahead of the May holidays ahead. Those that were, the tourists later withdrew, asked to return the money. " According to Joff, "it is not known where the tourists come from and whether they will go at all."

The authorities of the republic have already announced that about 130 sanatoriums belonging to the Ukrainian government are nationalized. What will happen next to them is also unknown.

The Crimeans and interruptions with food supply are scared. For example, dairy products were previously delivered to the peninsula from the Kherson region. Now they are not in many stores. “The new authorities promise to solve the issue, but how - we do not understand yet,” pensioner Avdotya Mikhailovna is indignant.

In the last week, notaries are also on forced leave: by what laws to draw up real estate transactions - Russian or Ukrainian - they do not know, but meanwhile it has already been announced that the walking of the Russian ruble in Crimea will begin on March 24.

Questions arise with Crimean graduates. Minister of Education of Ukraine Sergey Kvit says that so far not a single Crimean educational institution has become subordinate to the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation. “We consider Crimean educational institutions Ukrainian, and this is how we treat them and continue to work,” he says. But what will happen next, it is not taken to predict. ... In Sevastopol, it was decided to leave police blocks at the entrances to the city, while the detachments of self-uniforms here and in other cities are already disbanded. But the Russian military to go to the places of their constant deployment are in no hurry. Many Crimeans dream that Kyiv “let go of them”, reconciled with the loss of Crimea. “Russia just won’t leave us and will not leave here-Ukraine needs to understand this,” says 39-year-old native of Simferopol Vasily, self-defense activist. “Otherwise, there will be a war here, and we will forget what a normal life is.”

Photos: Rafael Yagkhodzaev/ABACAPRESS/EAST News, Andrey Lyubimov/AP/East News, Bulent Doruk/ABACAPRESS/EAST News, Thomas Peter/Reuters, Victor Gurnyak/Reuters/Reuters/Reuters/Reuters/Reuters