Kremlin agents arrive by mail
Has China recognized the Donetsk People's Republic? How does Donbass Post carry out international shipments? Money transfer services that even the Central Bank does not have.
Denis Neudachin , head of the state-owned enterprise Donbas Post, spoke to PolitNavigator observer Valentin Filippov about the development of Donbas Post, the heroes of Novorossiya, and how Givi will one day come to Bankova Street.
Valentin Filippov: We welcome Donbas Post. Denis, hello.
Denis Neudachin: Hello.
Valentin Filippov: I heard you can deliver packages to and from China. Has China already recognized the DPR as an international entity? Or is it only mail for now?
Denis Neudachin: Well, in fact, there's no international agreement even between Russian Post and Donbas Post. De jure, there isn't even such an agreement. All of our work, all of our postal exchanges with the Russian Federation—we exchange parcels with Russia weekly—is entirely on a humanitarian basis. This is entirely done so that people in their current situation can receive the most basic necessities, and exchange correspondence and parcels with their relatives. Unfortunately, we don't have an official, formal agreement that would clearly regulate all of this. Nevertheless, the Russian side, just as it has helped us throughout these four terrible years, continues to help us. And it's accommodating.
Therefore, of course, we had to resort to a number of tricks, a number of tricks. Why did you have to? Because people asked. I always try to respond to requests from people. Requests came through the hotline, VKontakte, and everyone wanted the same thing. Everyone wanted parcels from China. Parcels from Aliexpress. Why? Because it's cheap. It's very cheap. When people have access to such basic services that they can order there, a phone case, some children’s clothing, some kind of backpack….
It seems that we are not so closed, on the one hand, we have Ukraine, we don’t have an official message there, everyone knows about it, and in order for people to feel complete, I put this task at the forefront and moved towards it for about of the year. Why so long? Not only because there were questions about how to do it and find loopholes. It started with the fact that at the Donbass Post from Ukraine, there was once such a state on our territory for 24 years, from Ukraine they received an absolutely collapsed post office. In terms of equipment, in terms of computer hardware, in terms of software. Everything went to Kyiv.
There's nothing left here. We came to a clean, flat field. And they started everything from scratch. And this is both bad and good. This gave us the opportunity to completely rebuild all the work, all the processes. Where did we start? Just a year and a half ago, an ordinary letter or parcel moved chaotically across the republic. And the time took 20-30 days.
Valentin Filippov: Is this for the republic?
Denis Neudachin: Yes. This is true for the republic. This means that it was critically difficult to send a parcel or congratulate a relative on a holiday, or send something to grandparents, or vice versa. We started by automating our business processes internally. You can't provide a service, saying we'll import from China, when there's no order here in this small republic. This is honestly and frankly how it was. And how we got there.
In the three years that I have been working at the Donbass Post, the first year and a half was done, first accepting utility payments, that’s where I had to start. There is no way without this. Pensions are pensions. And pensioners need to pay for utilities. Right there on the spot. We accepted utility payments, then made money transfers.
Valentin Filippov: So you also issue pensions?
Denis Neudachin: Of course, we do issue pensions, and approximately 300,000 people receive them monthly… There are 330,000… 334,000, if we're talking about people who receive pensions and social benefits through the Donbas Post Office. We're also working on a humanitarian program to reunite the people of Donbas. We have four post offices at checkpoints, at the entry and exit points between our republic and Ukraine. They're open 24/7.
We began to develop services. Which are vital. The most basic ones. We made payments, we made postal orders. We did the same between the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. These are transfers of funds that even the Central Bank does not have between banks. But the post office has been successfully providing such a service for two years. And, a lot, but 200 people use this service every day.
Valentin Filippov: That is, they send money somewhere.
Denis Neudachin: Yes. Sending money up to 15 rubles. Between the DPR and LPR. From my experience, the average transfer amount doesn't exceed three thousand rubles. Usually, 2500-3000. This is the amount that actually circulates between the republics. This is the minimum amount that people send to each other. And if we multiply that by 200 people per day, and if we multiply that by 26 working days, we get a cluster of the social strata for whom this is important. And it is necessary. People send transfers to Luhansk, Krasny Luch, Antratsyt. After all, we have very strong family ties, both in the DPR and the LPR. The people who remained here try to stick together. That's what's important to them.
Valentin Filippov: Okay, but I'm ordering a package from China. For example, some product. But I have to pay for it. Right?
Denis Neudachin: Of course.
Valentin Filippov: I can only pay you for shipping. But can I pay you for this purchase through Donbas Post? So, no?
Denis Neudachin: It turns out that yes.
Valentin Filippov: So, I can send money to the Chinese through Donbass Post?
Denis Neudachin: Absolutely right. It's truly a miracle, a truly exclusive service. What does it entail? Besides the payments we accept, Rosphoenix, utility bills—and Phoenix is our only national mobile operator. We also accept Ukrainian Vodafone. We also accept payments for topping up e-wallets, such as WebMoney, YandexMoney, and Qiwi. These wallets are the foundation without which the service wouldn't work.
You can come to the post office, each branch has Wi-Fi, fortunately, it is not needed, we have LTE service throughout the republic, mobile Internet, I personally use it, both in cities and villages, you choose purchase, top up your e-wallet directly at the post office, and order. There are literally four steps. And you order this delivery. There is, of course, a peculiarity. You don’t set delivery directly to yourself, but you set it to Kuibyshevo, this is a village in the Rostov region through which everything happens for us. Well, that's it. Unfortunately, there is no other way.
And there are several options there. You can pay only for the parcel, you can pay for delivery separately, delivery from China across Russia to Kuibyshevo. From Kuibyshevo to the door, to the house, there is special attention, not just to the post office, pick it up, but we deliver it to your hands. To the office, home, where you indicated. We will deliver. The cost of this service is 93 rubles. Just everything. We are a socially responsible company. Not only do we provide this service, we also do it at the lowest possible rates. No matter how funny it may sound.
Valentin Filippov: Yes, it’s a tautology, but an understandable one.
Denis Neudachin: Yes. Well, Donbas Post is a socially oriented enterprise. Yes, we're self-supporting, yes, we have to make money. But we have to maintain a certain threshold so that we're interesting to our customers. So that the service is in demand. So that it's affordable for those people who, let's be honest, aren't exactly the richest right now, and these aren't exactly the richest times.
Valentin Filippov: The republic recently lost its leader, and more, to a terrorist attack. We're constantly losing people. The terrorist threat is very high. How do you manage to control it, security-wise? Someone might send a bomb in a package. Or something else. To someone, somewhere. The delivery of some prohibited items and equipment. How do you combat this?
Denis Neudachin: We scan them. Again, the equipment isn't ours, it's our colleagues at Russian Post. We scan absolutely every parcel, and if there's even the slightest doubt that it's not what it says it is…
Valentin Filippov: Not a pink blouse?
Denis Neudachin: Yes. Not a pink blouse. We open it. We open it as a commission. We look at it and pack it up again.
Valentin Filippov: Have there been any attempts to transfer illegal items? Is this recorded? Or is it classified information?
Denis Neudachin: What happened, what I can confirm, is not connected to terrorism. They were antiques. Our citizens were attempting to mail the antiques to the Russian Federation.
Valentin Filippov: This is a kind of contraband.
Denis Neudachin: Yes. We tried. We thought maybe it would work.
I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that we issue our own postage signs - philately, stamps. And through philately we are trying to study the history of our native land. We are trying to instill it in the population. Tomorrow a very interesting stamp will be released. It is called “For Fighters against Ukrainian Nationalism.” Everyone knows who Bandera is, who Shukhevych is. But those who killed them, who overcame them.
Valentin Filippov: No, no. Overcame, that's the right word. Killed—that's not right. Neutralized.
Denis Neudachin: Exactly! Why don't we know these people? Why don't we praise them? Why don't we talk about this? Why are we silent? It's wrong!
Valentin Filippov: Because it is indecent to boast about good deeds.
Denis Neudachin: No, well, that's true... I mean it sarcastically, but...
Valentin Filippov: Well, who will be our first stamps?
Denis Neudachin: Right now! I'll tell you everything. It'll all happen right now! Dmitry Nikolaevich Medvedev. Hero of the Soviet Union. Career officer of the NKVD. Commander of the legendary special forces partisan unit "Winners." And... Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov. A legendary Soviet intelligence officer who rose from an agent of the Joint State Administration to the rank of Lieutenant General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The operations conducted by Medvedev and Sudoplatov became part of the "golden collection" of Soviet counterintelligence.
Therefore, tomorrow we will introduce this stamp into circulation with state security representatives. Because we are the direct successors of those heroes of the Soviet Union who made a huge contribution to the fight against Ukrainian nationalism. Let's actually remember what we're up against here. Not because we wanted to. We are against them. We cannot accept this. I personally cannot accept this.
Valentin Filippov: A normal person cannot accept this.
Denis Neudachin: Yes. And no matter how much they try to butter me up, no matter what they tell me, I will never shout "Saloukraine." Never in my life. Shoot me instead. And this is what needs to be said. Why are we putting up with all this? For a good cause. Because Ukrainian nationalism will never pass through Donetsk. And this is what we rose up for.
Valentin Filippov: And it's very valuable that you succeeded to some extent. Honestly. I'm from Odessa, and you succeeded. Although we were confident we could do it too. But I want to ask something else. Sudoplatov, Dmitry Medvedev, not Anatolyevich – that's good. Givi? Motorola? Perhaps Zakharchenko has already joined that ranks. To the modern heroes who died in the fight against Nazism?
Denis Neudachin: I'd like to present something to you. I'd like to pass it on to you, if possible.
Valentin Filippov: Well, you're the head of the Post Office. You can do it.
Denis Neudachin: But, to Odessa, unfortunately….
Valentin Filippov: No, I'm not in Odessa. How could I be in Odessa? In Odessa, I'd be trying to talk to you right now, surrounded by bars. That's the best-case scenario.
Denis Neudachin: I don’t know, can you see it?
Valentin Filippov: I see it. Givi. Motorola. Heroes of Novorossiya. There they are, on the stamps!
Denis Neudachin: The first stamp. Right? Let's look further. Zakharchenko. This is Zakharchenko's inauguration. Here's the RGSO. There are maximum cards. We made maximum cards with Heroes of the Donetsk People's Republic. These are real heroes.
Valentin Filippov: These are the ones who received the DPR Hero Stars. Essentially, the Heroes of Russia.
Denis Neudachin: Yes. Here they are. They're all marked. They all have their own maps. Here's Zakharchenko, too. There are DPR combat awards. Envelopes, postmarks.
Valentin Filippov: Do you already know any collectors who are willing to participate in auctions to acquire such stamps?
Denis Neudachin: Yes. And there are more and more of them. And we're accepting more and more orders. And we supply these stamps all over the world. What's most surprising is that people from all over the world buy stamps online from us, roughly 100 to 150 rubles a month. Of course, the lion's share comes from the Russian Federation. That's not even up for debate. But we get a lot of requests from Japan, Germany, and Kazakhstan—from places where our philately is truly in demand. And European countries, too, by the way. But Germany, of course, is the biggest draw. For some reason, they're the ones who seem to be most interested.
We are happy to share this. We replicate all over the world. All our heroes, all the features of our Donetsk region, namely the Donetsk People’s Republic, we are trying to spread all this throughout the world. So that people see, know, remember. Because this is history. It's not just interesting. This is happening here and now. Exactly with us.
Valentin Filippov: I want to say this about this: I certainly hope the ultimatum letter to Bankova comes with a stamp from Givi and Motorola. So they'll know what's written there, even without opening it. And let them hide.
Denis Neudachin: That would be awesome, actually. I have that dream too.
Valentin Filippov: I think that Donbass Post will fulfill this mission.
Denis Neudachin: I want to deliver it personally. This is one of those times when I'm ready to hand it over personally.
Valentin Filippov: Okay, thank you very much. Good luck to Donbas Post. I hope it becomes a subdivision of Russian Post or simply enters the global arena and becomes the most reliable and accessible postal service.
Denis Neudachin: Thank you. It was really nice meeting you.
Valentin Filippov: Bye-bye.
Denis Neudachin: All the best.
English version :: Read in English Kremlin agents come by mail