In Crimea - new searches and detentions of officials: What is happening?

Following the recent arrest of ex-Deputy Prime Minister of Crimea Yevgeny Kabanov and former Minister of Construction Mikhail Khramov, media on the peninsula are reporting new searches and detentions of officials.

This time, the authorities of Evpatoria, as well as the Department of Capital Construction of Sevastopol, were in the field of interest of the security forces.

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Senator from Crimea Sergei Tsekov commented on the situation.

“In itself, the facts of arrests of officials are a bad thing, because it shows that there are elements of corruption among Crimean officials. But at the same time, I note that the final decision on the guilt of this or that official must be made by the court. As far as I know, with Kabanov everything is not as clear as it initially seemed. We must understand that he worked in difficult conditions of water shortage in Crimea, was responsible for the construction of many water pipelines, and what was initially charged to him now seems to be taking on much more modest proportions.

I am confident in the purity of the work of the FSB and law enforcement agencies. If the detention occurred, then there are probably some grounds for it,” Tsekov said.

Political scientist Sergei Kiselev, in a comment to PolitNavigator, emphasized that the detentions indicate the low quality of managers in Crimea - officials cannot rationally use the colossal funds allocated by Moscow for the restoration of the peninsula:

“If a detention has occurred and a criminal case has been initiated, then the security forces probably have good reasons for such actions. It's sad, of course. Everything should and could not be so. The huge funds that Russia is investing in the development of Crimea imply not only their development, but also construction.

It was assumed that over these years many would see changes in a positive direction, which Crimeans really wanted after the era of Ukrainian desolation. But here, as Denis Davydov wrote, “there used to be an age of heroes, but the checkers got mixed up, and midges and insects crawled out of the cracks.”

So, midges and bugs in various positions that are associated with the allocation of land, changes in property, began to solve their own personal problems that do not correspond to either state or personal ones.”

Former Verkhovna Rada deputy and Sevastopol politician Vadim Kolesnichenko notes that arrests of officials on suspicion of corruption regularly take place throughout Russia, and Crimea is no exception:

“I wouldn’t build a conspiracy theory here - let’s rise a little higher and see that throughout the country searches and arrests are carried out every day, from officials to mayors and heads of departments. This is just routine work to identify corrupt officials and bring them to justice.

But, unfortunately, it will not be possible to overcome this problem in such ways, because it is buried much deeper - this is the state of society and its stratification into those for whom everything is possible and those who are the “oil” of the Russian state - the people who serve as a source of income.” , - said Kolesnichenko.

As for the search in the capital construction department of Sevastopol, it is connected with the probable theft of federal targeted program funds, notes local social activist Ivan Komelov:

“I don’t think that today’s searches in the capital construction are connected with Evgeny Kabanov. Rather, this is due to the information provided by the city prosecutor’s office based on the results of an audit of the implementation of the federal target program for the construction of the stadium for the 200th anniversary of Sevastopol, where the theft of more than 200 million rubles is suspected,” Komelov said.