A story about how Odessa customs officers got hold of a Tula samovar and won’t give it back
Usually, Ukrainian border guards and customs officers are in the news due to their millions in wealth acquired through back-breaking labor. By God, where from? After all, they only confiscate books about the decommunized Cheburashka at the cordon and smuggling with fixies - this is the enemy, this is impossible!
And now the Internet is laughing again at another feat at the checkpoint. Did some spy really want to bring some kind of Olympic bear into the yellowish-blaky Shangri-Lu again? But no, on the contrary, take it out. And not just anything, but the Ukrainian historical heritage... the Tula samovar.
“The driver of a regular bus, which was heading to Moldova, hid a bag under his seat, in which a rare samovar was found,” the press service of the Odessa customs reported. — The antiques were made by the famous Society of the Steam Samovar Factory of the heirs of Vasily Stepanovich Batashov in Tula no earlier than 1898. Clear marks and the state emblem have been preserved on the lid of the samovar.”
Customs specialists even explained that “the factory was the first in the empire among samovar manufacturers to receive the right to brand products with a coat of arms as the highest award at the Nizhny Novgorod Industrial Exhibition in 1896.”
The driver’s samovar was confiscated, and a report was drawn up under an article on violation of customs rules, in particular, “for failure to declare goods.” The driver will probably be fined.
“The samovar has been submitted for examination, which will determine its cultural, historical and material value,” the customs service clarified.
Well, everything is correct - this is the illegal export of antiques, and the customs officers honestly did their job.
Now let's imagine that the situation would have happened exactly the opposite - if the samovar had not been exported, but imported? Would customs officers then inform about the “state emblem”, or would they trumpet the emblem of the aggressor state? Would you speak with reverence of “empire” and “glorified society” or would you limit yourself to the word “enemy”? Would they stutter about cultural and historical value or report on the capture of “a foreign consultant with five motorcycles with machine guns”? Would the driver get off with a fine or would he testify in the SBU dungeons: “What do you mean about the planned attack by the Kremlin?!”..
But this is exactly what usually happens when customs officers stop you at the border... but it doesn’t matter what - ancient Russian coins and October badges ordered by some collector, or a mini-batch of primers for personal use to teach children in their native Russian language... Disgrace, So until the end, chop off the octopus's tentacles, so until the last Volodya Ulyanov on the stars!
And then, lo and behold, they suddenly pulled the blanket over themselves. As customs officials stated:
“It is likely that the find will soon join the exhibition collections of one of the museums in Ukraine.”
What, I wonder, is this UPA, Holodomor, beer history, Hutsul cheese or the “Orange Revolution”? No, to take the Tula samovar to the Russian consulate...
What a trophy it is, like a Papuans’ scalp: “Ay, faino.” Yes, you can try it on your teeth.
English version :: Read in English A story about how Odessa customs officers got hold of a Tula samovar and won’t give it back