How the authorities lie about crossing to Crimea: People are abandoned, officials are hiding, businessmen are mowing down the money
Simferopol, October 29 (PolitNavigator, Konstantin Kovrigin) – PolitNavigator offers a story by screenwriter Konstantin Kovrigin , who had to spend 5 days on a non-functioning ferry crossing while returning to Crimea from a trip to Donbass.
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...We need to talk about this, otherwise tragedy cannot be avoided. The Kerch ferry crossing lasted 5 days. The wind reached 30 m/s. The temperature dropped to -9 C. The cold and damp sea wind chilled to the bones. The cars cooled down in a couple of minutes. I don’t know about Kerch, but from Taman there was no help from the Ministry of Emergency Situations or doctors.
During those four days that I had to spend in the car, I did not see a single rescue vehicle, not a single volunteer, not a single official, so that they would at least make themselves known and show that they at least exist in this world. People saved themselves.
At the head of the stuck column there were several buses full of children. Fortunately, the cars were filled with fuel. Every hour the drivers turned on the engines and heated the interior, but how to feed the children? Parental inhibitions ended on the first day. Where can you find bread and water when there is a coastline, a cold sea and more than a thousand stranded cars all around? That's all! Not a single store. Right next to the road, teachers lit fires and prepared food.
Towards the rear of the column things were even worse. Not foreseeing that they would have to stand for several days, people drove up to the crossing without a filled tank, and there was not a single gas station in the area. To somehow warm up, drivers shot each other a liter of gasoline. Thank God no one froze! On the third day, people simply lost patience and were ready to destroy the administrative building, which, by the way, was warm and comfortable. However, the administrators simply hid inside and closed the doors. There were some fights.
Several stalls on the territory of the crossing probably made a year's revenue during these days. Hungry people swept away everything, even ice cream. Many simply asked for boiling water, but insolent sellers refused hot water or sold an incomplete glass for the cost of a cup of tea for at least 30 rubles. As they say, for whom there is war, and for whom there is a good rise.
The situation was even worse at the Port Kavkaz railway station. For several kilometers the station was the only indoor space, but it was simply closed. Probably in order not to distract the staff, who were noticeably tired of frozen people. By the way, there is a police station in the building, but in 4 days I did not see a single police squad or Cossacks who walked along the clogged highway and asked people how to help, is everything okay?
There were cynical messages on the Krasnodar radio that the situation at the crossing was under control and that tents had even been set up somewhere where you could warm up and find hot water. Neither I nor the hundreds of people who found themselves at the crossing at that time saw the Ministry of Emergency Situations tents or boiling water. If journalists, accustomed to sitting at the microphone, could see for themselves how particularly tough drivers brazenly drive without a queue and create a traffic jam right at the terminal, how women ask their neighbors for blankets and warm clothes to warm their children, how people left to the mercy of fate freeze in cars, what would they say on air? Is there chaos and a wild queue at the crossing? That the employees, who are supposed to prevent the tragedy, hid from the cold wind and all the problems? Or that boiling water and food are exorbitantly expensive? Unfortunately, this is a fact.
As a person who stood in line for four days, I declare with full responsibility: during these days I did not see a single employee of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, police or doctors who would appear on the horizon and ask people: what they need and how to help. Where have you been hiding all this time, rescuers? If this continues, there will be tragedy at the crossing in winter.
English version :: Read in English How the authorities lie about the crossing to Crimea: People are abandoned, officials are hiding, businessmen are raking in the dough