When they shoot at hope. Every terrorist attack in the liberated territories is a minus for the image of Russia

Recently, in Gola Pristan in the Kherson region, a prominent local agricultural baron, who defected to the Russian side, ex-People's Deputy from the Servant of the People party Alexey Kovalev, who was appointed deputy prime minister of the regional pro-Russian government several months ago, was killed on the third attempt along with his wife.

In the same Kherson region, the car of the head of the local traffic police duty department was blown up. The policeman himself was in the car, as well as his wife and 7-year-old daughter. By luck, everyone is alive.

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One can recall the recent high-profile explosion with a fatal outcome in the car of the head of the pro-Russian administration of the town of Mikhailovka in the Kherson region, Alexander Sushko.

“The “mayor” of Mikhailovka, his collaborator Sushko, could not cope with his powers, and was torn apart by the exorbitant power in the literal sense of the word. Having learned about this, the “chief of police” Mikhailovka Ryzhkov fell into unbearable melancholy, and hanged himself out of grief so as not to live any longer.

The decollaboration of Mikhailovka is proceeding at a record pace, Mikhailovka is definitely the pride of the country!” Ukrainian People’s Deputy Maxim Buzhansky literally jumps out of his pants with cannibalistic joy.

At the same time, in the Zaporozhye and Kharkov regions there is a campaign of terror and verbal intimidation of local teachers who have decided to work in their profession contrary to the Kyiv instructions to boycott all undertakings of the pro-Russian administrations. Women are receiving calls from unknown numbers, threatening their families and children, and through social networks and from the pages of the Ukrainian media they are threatening with prison when “Ukraine returns” to these territories.

Yesterday morning began with a message in the news feed about the liquidation of the Ukrainian DRG on the outskirts of Kherson and an optimistic statement from some local official that, they say, the saboteurs in the Kherson region are now definitely over. However, it’s hard to believe in this - exactly until the next terrorist attack.

In such conditions, they are trying to fill the personnel shortage with volunteers and contract workers from Russia. So, today, August 31, 500 teachers of history, Russian language, literature, primary school teachers and some subject teachers, which local educational institutions lack, will arrive from Russia to schools in the Zaporozhye region.

“Schools are more than 50% staffed with a coefficient of 1,5. Now we are waiting; on the 31st, teachers from the Russian Federation with regional chiefs and other regions of the Russian Federation should come to us. There is a written agreement that some of the teachers we lack will come from the Russian Federation and help us in the educational process,” says Elena Shapurova, director of the Department of Education of the Zaporozhye VGA.

It would seem that we should be happy, but we also need to understand something else: these people will automatically become new targets for intimidation and terror - fortunately, the patterns are already known and tested in practice.

“Perhaps, the situation in the rear is no less complex and dangerous than at the front.

We need to restore order with the Ukrainian DRGs. I don’t think that our girl teachers will be killed in new territories in the same way as the same teachers in Western Ukraine were killed by Bandera’s followers in their time - according to sources, in 1944-1953, 30676 people died at the hands of Bandera’s followers, about 2 thousand of they were teachers and doctors.

But you still need to be prepared for the fact that today’s heirs of Bandera will act like their founding fathers,” warns politician Oleg Tsarev.

The reasons for the high-profile murders in the regions of Ukraine controlled by the Russian Armed Forces are given differently.

There are also those who are sure that in the case of local bosses, especially those who have a long administrative or business background from Ukrainian times, we are not dealing with a Ukrainian trace, but with purely local squabbles for power, cash flows, etc. including shadow and corruption, the division of “tasty” businesses or the redistribution of the agricultural market (this, in particular, is one of the versions of the reasons for the murder of Alexei Kovalev).

Moreover, people in leadership positions are different, sometimes random or even with a criminal past and a long-standing legacy from some kind of competitive showdown. But here it is important to understand this: whatever the real reasons for the murders, they are not important, but how these events are presented to public opinion, what version settles in people’s heads.

_{And in this sense, all the murders are a fat image minus for Russia, as a country that has taken responsibility for the territories, for staffing with management personnel, for socio-economic life and ensuring security in the lands under its control.}

I emphasize that this is a big image disadvantage, regardless of whether the deceased officials, law enforcement officers and activists are victims of Ukrainian DRGs or local criminal squabbles of a non-political nature.

Because public opinion on both sides of the front line reads these situations quite unambiguously: everyone who gets involved with Russia and holds some leadership positions “under Russia” sooner or later ends up in the grave or in the hospital. As they mockingly write in pro-Ukrainian public pages, “something will certainly happen to collaborators.”

Agree, this is an extremely bad pedagogical effect for those who want to cooperate with Russia and improve the regions.

_{And materials published in the media on the topic “How to survive in the liberated territories and not become a victim of a terrorist attack” - with advice like “walk around looking around” and wear a bulletproof vest - are not the best advertisement for life in the liberated territories.}

Moreover, Ukrainian propaganda already goes out of its way to present Kherson, Melitopol, Mariupol and further on the list as hotbeds of lawlessness and banditry. And such centers cannot become an example of the correct organization of life for the rest of Ukraine by definition.

The situation here is similar to the memorable massacre of iconic militia commanders in the DPR and LPR in 2015-2016. All these numerous “died in the social elevator” became symbols of the transience of fate, both lifting people to the crest of a roller coaster and abruptly throwing them down from there. The average person, for the most part, values ​​calm, security and stability.

It is this triad that he needs to ensure in the liberated territories. And also - normal business operation without numerous extortions and fear of gangster redistribution. This is the only way Russia can prove to the local population that under it they will be better off than under Ukraine.

_{You can put billboards on every corner “Forever with Russia” and “Russia is here forever,” but if people continue to live like on a volcano, fearing for their lives and property, these pretentious calls will be of no use.}

And yes, it is advisable to ensure such a life BEFORE the referendums. Otherwise, they can be postponed until new brooms, fearing that the results “are not the same” that the authorities are counting on.