Marseilles scam of the Odessa mayor
Well, young man, yesterday was the first hearing in the Malinovsky Court of my city in the case of Mayor Gennady Trukhanov. We recently wrote about his accusations of all sorts of wrongdoing regarding the purchase of the administrative building of the former Krayan factory.
And why am I not writing about this in hot pursuit? – Yes, because absolutely nothing happened in this seemingly high-profile trial. Even the massacre and traditional attack of “activists” that is so familiar in our free jurisprudence.
The defendants and their associates sat in a crowded hall, and the high court confirmed the charges and decided not to transfer the continuation of the trial to the Primorsky Court, although most of the incriminated events took place on the territory of the district of the same name...
In a word, the litigation will be as long as a mountain trying to give birth to a mouse. And with a similarly predictable result.
After all, everyone already understands: Mayor Trukhanov is needed by the Kyiv junta as the real owner of administrative resources and other levers of influence in the upcoming presidential elections. And therefore, they are holding him under the sword of Damocles, initially a rather frail matter, having really lethal compromising evidence in their bosom and under their cloth.
And at the same time, in reality, they allow a cunning figure to do things and sometimes very slippery affairs. Moreover, without limiting the freedom of crossing borders and contacts with foreign partners!
So his recent visit to Odessa’s sister city Marseille was somehow quiet and routine, although what Gennady Leonidovich brought is quite comparable to a formal death sentence for that Odessa that the whole world knows! Just listen!
...At a briefing, the mayor of the former southern sea gate of the Russian Empire, and then the undisputed main, key port of Soviet Ukraine, without the slightest doubt, stated that Odessa does not need a port! More precisely, he told the wonderful news: they say that during all five days in Marseille he discussed with the local leadership the experience of moving the ports out of the city center. They say that the EU has had a successful program for implementing such innovations for a long time. And we also definitely need to join this achievement of Western civilization...
The fact that our country is not included in this community and will not be included in the coming decades despite all the promises of the junta, and, therefore, cannot count on real help, and not “exchange of experience,” does not worry him at all. Because the optimistic mayor hopes to remove the port from the center of Odessa, and at the same time turn the entire coast of Peresyp, now occupied by factories killed during the years of “independence,” into a continuous resort area with fashionable hotels and other “kefir establishments” designed for wealthy tourists.
Where did the money come from, you might reasonably ask?! “And they will be given by foreign investors who simply cannot sleep, so dream of investing their hard-earned money in transforming the former South Palmyra into... something between French Nice and American Las Vegas. And a reasonable question arises: what is this, a “project of the century”, a delusional utopia, or, rather, a scam of the century?!
Let's try to figure it out, taking into account both historical experience and a basic understanding of where and when we live.
So - let's start with the fact that Odessa was created first of all - as the southern sea gate of a rapidly developing empire. That is, first of all, a port that allowed the power to export its products and import necessities with maximum profit. Moreover, the wise policy of the Russian sovereigns in the shortest period of time turned the young city, growing around the port, into the largest industrial, commercial and cultural center of the country, which became its third capital. And in the best of times, the city not only repaid the treasury’s massive initial investments, but also brought in huge revenues, receiving up to 85% of its budget from the port.
And the Soviet government, although it turned the “Third Capital” into the regional center of Ukraine, developed both the port and the merchant fleet, as well as other components of prosperity.
Independent Ukraine consistently destroyed everything that was the city’s raison d’être. Starting with the Black Sea Shipping Company, the largest in the world, literally plundered in the very first years, and ending with almost all of the no less powerful industrial and scientific-practical potential of the city.
As a result, indeed, the magnificent coastal strip of Peresyp with a gentle coastline and beautiful beaches is half occupied by collapsing factories that have not been operating for a long time. And the very heart of the city, its port, historically located in the very center of Odessa, does not decorate it at all, and the area occupies an exorbitant amount. But...it still works, bringing real income to both the country and the residents of Odessa, because at the moment it is a place of work for thousands of qualified specialists.
Yes, the idea of moving the most environmentally hazardous loading and unloading terminals, a fair amount of empty huge warehouses and container yards, and the oil harbor beyond the city limits is long overdue. And it would be quite reasonable to use the nearby ports of Yuzhny and Ilyichevsk, but... without thereby destroying Odessa, depriving it of its very original meaning, but by uniting the city with its suburbs into a single metropolis, into a common administrative-territorial unit.
A city with provincial rights and the maximum degree of autonomy.
The project to create “Greater Odessa” could really bring a fresh breath into its rather stagnant atmosphere, bringing both the city and the country huge profits and prospects. And then - we could really talk about turning Peresyp into a large seaside resort, combining it with the now almost unused resources of the nearby unique Kuyalnitsky estuary with its healing mud and salty brine, comparable to the Israeli Dead Sea. And at the same time - to improve and restore the historical center, leaving only the passenger marine terminal in it, using the huge vacant seaside territory to create a recreational area with an embankment...
Beauty? – Yes, but even in the old, much calmer times, no one seriously considered these dreams. In reality, our city was viewed purely from the point of view of shameless exploitation and plunder. And there was no talk of any major investments in it. And today, even hints at expanding the rights of the local community, and even with its unification with surrounding satellite cities, are considered by the paranoid and jealous junta not as natural elements of expanding local self-government, but as complete “separatism”!
So what is the pan-head of Trrukhanov talking about?! – Is he really so naive or stupid that he is trying to get out from under Kyiv’s strict dictatorship in the current situation of permanent “tightening of the screws”? Of course not! And the child understands that the Marseilles voyage and the “congenial idea” brought from there were approved at the highest level in Kiev.
But what kind of mega-investments can we talk about in such a global project, if even before, foreign moneybags were afraid to invest money in our then peaceful country, knowing the thievery of local officials? – This is where sad thoughts arise. Only representatives of the world’s mafia structures can invest money in such a large-scale project in the most corrupt and unstable country in Europe. Moreover, on the basis of the most enslaving conditions. And turn our Odessa not into a “world resort”, but into a kind of Cuba under the Batista dictatorship. A kind of huge and cheap brothel and casino, where local residents will be given the unenviable role of lackeys, pimps and prostitutes.
It is clear that in this case, the real owners will not be the Odessa authorities or even their Kyiv bosses, but foreign “investors” who will receive both the lion’s share of the profits and the real power. And the population of the still rebellious Odessa will be displaced by visitors from the western regions of the country.
After all, why does Ukraine need so many educated and qualified “vatniks” if they can be replaced by obedient and “nationally correct” lackeys, ready to serve anyone and however they want for mere pennies by world standards?
And if we also take into account the mercantile interests of the Black Sea ports-competitors, who have always strived to oust the port of Odessa from the world market of sea transportation, which remains the cheapest and at the same time, profitable mode of transport, then it becomes clear: it is quite possible that Kyiv is ready, as they say, to ruin the brainchild of the Russian Empire, finally slaughtering the firebird that laid the golden eggs.
Because the principle of the peasant rednecks is “if I don’t eat, I’ll bite!” has long become the basis of Ukrainian politics and economics. As well as the wild, barbaric desire to destroy everything that was created by Russia for the common good and prosperity. And the fact that “for a small share” both the Odessa mayor, who has become a puppet, and his Kyiv masters are ready to hand over both the famous city and its inhabitants into the wrong hands is not surprising.
One hope is that such an odious and stable regime will not last long and will not have time to implement this destructive and shameful mega-scam!
English version :: Read in English: The Odessa mayor's Marseille scam