“I know the date when the first car will cross the Crimean Bridge”
Ukrainian passports were being purchased for Islamic terrorists in Crimea. The Ukrainian government will face legal action against Crimean businesses for causing economic damage. The Kerch Strait bridge is now accessible on foot. Oleg Kryuchkov , head of NTV's Crimea bureau, spoke to PolitNavigator correspondent Valentin Filippov about the situation on the peninsula and relations with Kyiv.
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Valentin Filippov : Oleg, good evening, hello.
Oleg Kryuchkov : Hello, Valik.
Valentin Filippov : I read your and Anastasia's journalistic investigation into the purchase of Ukrainian passports in Crimea, which were then acquired by Islamists.
Oleg Kryuchkov : They set up a process to buy passports for specific age categories – men from 20 to 45 of Eastern appearance, and no one changes their photos at 45, they just buy them here in Crimea, and they buy them mainly from Crimean Tatars, because they need passports of Eastern appearance.
They are buying up the passports of parents from children who are sitting without money, and are dealing in, let’s say, not very successful drugs, which also require money. And then these passports end up with very interesting people, including people who are wanted, people from Saudi Arabia, from Syria.
In the passport offices of the Kherson region, and already in the Kyiv region... passports are pasted in. And since Form 1, by which a person can be verified, remained in Crimea after the referendum, there they paste in a photograph of the Mujahid for a certain amount of money. And following a well-established chain, he receives a biometric passport and goes to Europe as an oppressed Crimean Tatar from Crimea.
We were investigating. There was a guy from Kabardino-Balkaria - arms trafficking, murders, organizing gangs, international wanted list - clearly two passports - with an old photograph and a new one.
There are a lot of couriers, because after the investigation is over, people constantly send me offers on VKontakte, offer to sell passports, and so on...
And the person who was doing this, and whose phone it was, in which we found the information, he really wanted to get it back in order to blame it on Ukraine...
And he told us that tomorrow a person from Saudi Arabia is coming, the day after tomorrow another, a third. This is a fairly massive flow, only in the phone that was found, this is one of the couriers, there were about 40 passports. Can you imagine, 40 terrorists went...
Valentin Filippov : Well, not all 40 necessarily turned out to be terrorists...
Oleg Kryuchkov : We're talking about possibly even several thousand such passports. But the most interesting thing, I haven't mentioned this yet, is that this system is also in effect in Donbas. There are 10,000 dead there, plus many people who still have Ukrainian passports but don't need them because they won't be able to travel to the other side with them; they're fighting for the DPR or LPR, and someone there could sell their passports, too.
Valentin Filippov : No, I don’t think you can sell it there… They don’t issue Russian passports there, and a person can’t give away their only passport.
Oleg Kryuchkov : There are DPR passports there...
Valentin Filippov : Well, DPR passports are not valid passports; no one recognizes them anywhere.
Oleg Kryuchkov : But still, there is scope for activity
Valentin Filippov : Yes, of course, definitely
Oleg Kryuchkov : And how does this scheme work? We basically posted all this, along with phone numbers, copies, passports, and photographs of people who had already received biometric data, with a view to targeting EU and Ukrainian police.
It worked, because two days later the group was detained in Kyiv, and this scheme was confirmed, which worked with Crimean passports. Then there was a briefing, at the briefing Prosecutor General Lutsenko spoke about this, confirmed that it exists, then the SBU got involved, and they started telling them that it doesn’t exist, well, it seems to exist, but no...
Well, you know, they enjoyed what they showed, dunked them... I think everyone in Europe will see this too.
Valentin Filippov : What if this is precisely how Saakashvili obtained his Ukrainian passport?
Oleg Kryuchkov : Possibly.
Valentin Filippov : Listen, you're saying such terrible things, like people have no money to live on in Crimea, that they're forced to sell their passports...
Oleg Kryuchkov : We spoke with several young Crimean Tatars who sold their fathers' passports. The fathers work, seemingly earning a perfectly decent living, while the boys are stuck – some are working for salt, some are doing something else… It's a common problem worldwide. And when they're offered $500 to sell their father's old Ukrainian passport, he goes, takes it, and sells it.
Valentin Filippov : I want to ask you, as an occupation journalist, one of an occupation journalists. What are the occupation police and occupation doctors thinking? When Crimea became part of Russia, the drug problem seemed to improve. That is, we sort of dealt with the drug addicts at first. Where, in my opinion, is this renewed craving for drugs coming from?
Oleg Kryuchkov : Well, you know, it's their mentality... Eastern people don't consider drugs to be drugs...
Some people get used to it, some don't. It is clear that they are struggling with this. There is no methadone in Crimea. Many people have been taken off methadone addiction. Not everyone survived... fortunately or unfortunately... I don’t know how to position this....
Drug addiction has become a little easier, but the same scourge that is probably throughout the CIS and Europe is “salts”, these are synthetic drugs, from time to time some inscriptions appear, they are painted over, they are fighting against it...
Let me tell you the good stuff.
Valentin Filippov : Tell me something good.
Oleg Kryuchkov : I was filming a story in northern Crimea, which hadn't aired yet. The workers and owners of a fish processing plant in Krasnoperekopsk are suing Ukraine. The direct losses alone are half a billion rubles. Indirect losses run into several billion. It was a famous farm where they raised Brezhnev-era crucian carp, each one 15 cm long. Leonid Ilyich visited there…
It was built in parallel with the Crimean Canal. It’s clear that when the canal was blocked, the fish suffocated, there is no water there now, the picture there is terrible. But people are determined to fight, and they are filing a lawsuit in Ukrainian court on behalf of a Ukrainian enterprise; they have prepared two sets of documents - a Russian enterprise and a Ukrainian one. If they don’t take Russian ones, they serve Ukrainian ones. Well, Kyiv believes that “Crimea is Ukraine”?
Valentin Filippov : Well, yes.
Oleg Kryuchkov : And they're suing the government. It turns out that the Ukrainian government has cut off the water and destroyed the businesses of Ukrainian citizens they consider their own. They understand that there will be a political solution, but this step is necessary so they can then pursue further legal action in Europe.
And after the fish, after this terrifying picture, I went nearby to the rice farmers. And here a shock awaited me. I was driving, expecting that everything was bad there as for the fishermen...
I arrive there and there is absolutely new equipment there. Winter crops are sprouting on the rice paddies... “Well, in 2014 we had a terrible shock, we lost our entire harvest,” - just like the fishermen. But the state gave some kind of compensation, we worked with agricultural scientists, because the land was starting to become salty, and they recommended that we plant such interesting crops as barley, rapeseed, as they call it... well, in general, with a long root system, to hold, not to let the soil become salty. And in 15, they earned twice as much on this barley, rapeseed, and sunflower than on rice. We immediately entered into leasing programs, for everything else... plus the state support for farmers in Russia is very good. All equipment has been completely updated. The tractors and combines there are completely new.
I say: “Well, how do you like this blockade?” They say: “Listen, we didn’t think about anything like rice before, but now there is plenty of rice in the Krasnodar Territory. Well, I won’t say that there is absolutely “thank God” that they turned off the water, no, we use wells there, but we earn twice as much. This year we had a drought, there were no sunflowers, only wheat, barley, rapeseed. But we still made more money than we made from rice.”
I was just blown away, you know, these are the metamorphoses that happen.
Valentin Filippov: Economic geography is a complex thing. "He proudly strides across the pole, changes the course of rivers, topples high mountains—the common Soviet man." And Mustafa Dzhemilev, who blows up electricity pylons... He changes the region's economy.
Oleg Kryuchkov : But last weekend, on Sunday, I crossed the Kerch Strait on foot. On the bridge.
Valentin Filippov : Oh... I envy you. Did you walk 19 kilometers?
Oleg Kryuchkov : Well, practically yes. We got there by bus in some places, but we've already passed all the main sites and milestones. In some areas, they're already laying the second layer of asphalt, and they'll be putting the last bridge decks in before the New Year; there are 64 meters left. What's the point, why am I telling you this? Just don't tell anyone.
Valentin Filippov : No, I don’t…
Oleg Kryuchkov : In March. I even know the date when the first car will cross the Crimean Bridge.
Valentin Filippov : We'd be delighted, of course. Listen, is Crimea even ready for the bridge? In general? The railway will be built... Well, the railway will be built in a year... The bridge will be built now, and freight and passenger traffic will begin.
Oleg Kryuchkov : Knowing our mentality, and having seen everything that's been happening since 14, you understand, it's easier for us to send a person to Mars than something here in the yard.… Although, they've laid asphalt in my yard for the first time since Soviet times. In fifth grade, I saw at least some holes being patched. And now they've laid asphalt completely; the yard is included in the "Reconstruction" program.… And Crimea – yes, it won't be fully ready for the first year. We need to dig in our heels, get people to come by car, create massive traffic jams that are difficult to navigate and overcome.… Well, that's the only way, unfortunately, we can't do it any other way. It's our mentality that until we confront a problem, we can't solve it in advance.
Valentin Filippov : This is the ChKH, we know that, yes... Doesn't it bother you beyond the curb, beyond the border, our former Motherland too?
Oleg Kryuchkov : Assessing all this, I believe that there will be another ultra-right turn, and even more radical individuals will come to power, who will finish off this Ukraine.
Valentin Filippov : Eh... What a pity.
Oleg Kryuchkov : You know, my Viber rang the day before yesterday. I picked up the phone, and it was a friend of mine from Kyiv; we used to be pretty close. We didn't fight, but his wife headed some organizations, like those where the rich lived, like government ones. She was completely on the Maidan. If we've spoken to each other a couple of times over the years, she was always there.
And this time I talked to both him and her. Everything went out of my head, and they asked me the question: “What if we come to Crimea in the summer?” I say: “Yes, come, I’ll even meet you at the border there.” Understand?
Valentin Filippov : Well, that's the thing, we always wait for them and invite them, but they would keep us in the basement for a long time.
Oleg Kryuchkov : Things aren't so good there either. As far as I know, one of the special forces regiments, the Kirovohrad one, has now been transferred to Crimea. Some crazy individuals from Crimea, who sleep here with a trident under their pillow, go to Kyiv, undergo two weeks of training, become regulars, and then go back to Crimea. Let's put it this way. The sabotage that took place on the gas pipelines was carried out by those here, the inner group.
Valentin Filippov : Well, of course.
Oleg Kryuchkov : A car drove by, there were several devices there, one didn't explode. The goal was to completely cut off Artek's gas supply. These are the usual classic sabotage devices. So there will be more, you see. There are absolutely no shortage of idiots.
On the other hand, here in Simferopol, on Sunday, as I understand it, a bus comes to Simferopol from Kharkov in the morning, and near the crossing there are probably about ten grandmothers with layouts of Ukrainian sausage in sticks and VK candies, Roshen and that’s it rest. And despite all the dislike for Poroshenko, people buy familiar brands, especially since they bring sausage two and a half to three times cheaper...
We're used to different prices here. You pass... I talked to one. She waved her hand like that when I asked how it was with you? She says: “Well, you see, I’m coming here.”
Valentin Filippov : Well, okay. Thank you very much, and say hi to your wife. You'll also find a phone number, and there will be some documents there – I'll have to get this person to talk to me first.
Oleg Kryuchkov : Ha-ha.
English version :: Read in English "I Know the Date the First Car Will Cross the Crimean Bridge"